9.00 Female sitting on brood - broken eggshell visible up in the corner
9.07 Head over wing - asleep
9.10 Bird suddenly alert
9.22 Awake and preening
9.23 Awake and pulling shingle up to make a ridge in front of the nest
9.29 Bird alert and looking around
9.31 Bird moving about to settle chicks - brief view of chicks
9.46 Bird restless - slights view of chicks
9.54 Bird stands up - pecking something at the front of the box
(prey?) Flies off
9.56 Male - Tiercel - flies in and takes over
10.02 Tiercel finds it more difficult to cover the chicks completely
10.15 Bird irritated by a fly !
10.48 Moving shingle again to make nest
11.00 Tiercel sitting on nest one chick slightly showing bird resting on wings. Bothered by a fly
11.02 Manoeuvring chicks
11.04 Bird eating gravel stood back from chicks revealing how much they have grown during the last day chicks visible bird facing forwards.
11.11 Tiercel standing up off chicks.
11.12 Bird distracted by a fly.
11.14 Swallowing small pieces of gravel.
11.16 Chicks vying for position.
11.23 Bird set up and all three chicks appear to be visible
11.30 to 11:33 Bird dozing but alert.
11.38 Again distracted by the movement of a fly.
11.42 Chicks becoming more restless.
11.45 Bird rising allowing the chicks to shuffle
11.51 Female flies in.
11.53 Falcon settles down on nest facing out.
12.06 up til 12:10 Falcon quite settled.
12.10 Caught a spider in front of the nest and ate it.
12.12 Distracted by a fly buzzing around.
12.15 Digging into gravel and appeared to be eating small pieces.
12.21 Still digging gravel moving away from chicks.
12.29 Standing up with cheeks sitting on birds feet.
12.38 to 12:45 Scratching in gravel digging holes and appeared to be eating something possibly small pieces of flesh.
12.59 Bird sitting on chicks shielding with wings.
13.02 Male is disturbed by a fly for a while then closes his yellow eyelid upwards and relaxes.
13.20 Male seems to be unsettled by something, raises the chest, looks underneath then settles.
13.39 Pecking at stones in front and glances around.
13.44 Male sits upright and looks around, stretches wings and walks to the front then flies away. Chicks start to wake up lifting their heads and opening beaks.
13.45 Female arrives with prey and puts herself between the chicks and the camera. Can see pieces being torn off and an occasional view of the chicks being fed.
13.52 Female removes the prey.
13.52 Male comes back and stands behind the chicks shielding them.
13.58 Female arrives, change over.
13.59 Female settles down covering chicks only shuffling around at times for the next hour.
15.00 Female still sitting with chicks.
15.06 Female picking at the gravel
15.13 Female watches the now resident fly buzzing around
15.33 Female brings in food and feeds the 3 chicks
15.42 Female takes the prey away and the male takes over brooding
15.53 Female returns and the male takes flight
16.46 Female has a preen
17.00 Female still brooding
Thank you too Julian Thomas, James Ramshaw and Brendon Ollett for todays blog