Winter has returned.
NNE winds at 50mph, 4 degrees feels like minus 2, light cloud with sunny intervals, earlier we had snow and hail showers. The snow has settled but is patchy and slushy.
My watch began at 9 am but I saw that the tiercel was on the eggs at 8.20 when I first looked in.
9.00 Tiercel incubating.
9.19 He changed position and is now facing away from the camera
9.20 The sun is streaming into the front of the nest box, all but his tail is in shade
9.45 Falcon arrives and he gets up and flies off. She settles quickly facing away from the camera
10.13 She changes position and is now facing left. The wind is ruffling her wing and tail feathers
10.34 She changes position again and is facing away from the camera
10.57 She is alert and looks behind her.
11.18. She stands and shuffles round to face SW, left back corner. She settles down over the eggs. Her feathers are being buffeted by the wind. 11.32. Something takes her attention as she looks out of the box but she doesn’t seem worried. She continues to check for a while though. 11.35. The wind is gusting blowing her feathers up revealing her white ‘undercoat’ ( I think there is there a proper name for this but can’t remember it) 11.45. She stands and shuffles her feet in the scrape settling down facing SE 11.50. She is alert, looks out of the box and all around. She stands and repositions herself to face the back.
11.56. The falcon calls and stands up revealing the 3 eggs as the tiercel approaches, they change over.
12.07. He shuffles and bobs over the eggs settling to face SE
12.33. He bobs to make himself more comfy over the eggs 12.42. Another shuffle and shifts to face the back of the box. 12.57. He turns his head to look over his shoulder for a quick glance. He is getting buffeted by that wind.
12:55 The Tiercel has apparently been in place for about an hour.
13:00 There is fitful sun catching the back of the Tiercel, as his tail and back feathers are ruffled by the wind. He is facing essentially North, into the back of the platform.
13:04 He stands up, shuffles the eggs, then rotates a little but is not entirely happy with the placement of the eggs, so has another go, rocking up and down, then settles again, now facing out of the platform, roughly South-East.
13:09 We see one eye drifting closed, and the sun comes out again.
13:21 The Tiercel has been looking at stones, then gives a yawn, or just a gape maybe, then shuffles round on the eggs to face more Easterly now. Relaxed in the sun.
13:36 A moment’s stone picking, then he looks round sharply as if seeing something outside. It comes to nothing, so he lifts up a little, moves the eggs about a bit, then settles back down, still facing roughly East.
13:47 After a few minutes of relaxing, the Tiercel has another short session of stone picking, then shuffles in place, and settles down again.
14:05 The Tiercel opens his beak a few times. Perhaps he has a dry mouth after sitting in the sun for a while.
14:10 Another shuffle, this time so the Tiercel is facing North, into the back of the platform. He has to have a couple of goes before he is satisfied that the eggs are tucked in.
14:25 The Tiercel is more alert, looking over his shoulder, although he still seems fairly relaxed. After a minute of gazing over his shoulder, he settles back again.
14:41 He is watching again, so perhaps he is expecting a changeover soon, although more likely he is just doing the usual check.
14:51 The Tiercel’s head comes up for another quick look out, but soon settles back again.
14:59 As this stint ends, the Tiercel is still on the eggs, currently quite relaxed, and hunkered down in the wind, but lit by some nice afternoon sun.
1600hrs male ( I deduced this from later visit of second bird which to me looked bigger) sitting on eggs facing the back of the box. Feathers ruffled throughout due to strong winds today.
07 Shuffling around and then still.
08 alert moving head to left and then right.
09 still and settled until
15 looks right and behind him out of the box but doesn’t move main position.
17 still then sleeping until
33slight movements.
40 ish ( I was temporarily distracted!) came the change over. female came in and male went out immediately. She sat on the eggs straightaway. Also facing towards the back of the box. Stays still until 54 looks behind her out of the box. In same position up to
1700 hours.
Thank you to todays volunteers: Debbie, Julia, Peter, Barbara and Sue