07.50 The female is brooding the young.
08.55 She is much more alert now, and calls repeatedly
08.56 Time for a feed! The male arrives with prey, and his mate wastes no time in relieving him of it. He departs while she breaks it up for the chicks.
09.05 With most of the prey item consumed by the chicks (and some by their mum!), the female leaves the nest carrying the remnants. The young are left unattended on a breezy-looking platform.
09.07 The male returns, and can be seen calling softly to the chicks. After feeding them any dropped fragments of food he begins brooding, but after less than a minute he’s displaced by the female. She settles down over the chicks facing the back of the box.
10.00 The female continues to brood the young. In this position we can see that she might need a bit of a wash and spruce up when she’s next off-duty: the primaries (the long flight feathers) of the right wing are smeared in ‘whitewash’, probably from one of her offspring with careless aim!
10.22 After a preen, she settles back down.
10.30 The female changes position and stands up, as the young fidget beneath her. One takes advantage of the extra space by having a toilet break…
11.00 The female is still standing over the young, who are lazing around in the sun.
11.17 Adult preening.
11.22 Adult shuffling gravel under chicks
11.35 Adult preening
11.57 Adult standing upright, very alert. Chicks very active.
11.59 Adult flown off.
12.01 Adult back with prey. Chicks seem to be being fed equally.
12.06 Adult flown off
12.09 Adult back, settling on chicks.
12.17 Adult left.
12.23 Adult back with prey, feeding chicks.
12.39 Adult over chicks who are asleep.
12.55 Chicks slightly more active.
13.00 Falcon settling down on young
13.26 Kill brought in by Tiercel - something with red legs and dark feathers - Redshank, Ruff ?? Tiercel starts to feed chicks, but Falcon takes over. All three chicks fed although it looked as though the
front one was going to get it all, but mum made sure the
other two got some.
13.35 She flies of with the remains
13.38 Returns and settles down over the chicks
13.57 Another kill brought in ! Looks like the same prey. Mum is seen eating the long legs
14.00 She flies off again with the carcass
14.01 Returns and settles down over chicks who are getting really big.
14.50 Adult asleep with back to camera buit head over shoulder on her back
14.58 Starts to rain.
15.00 Female brooding
15.17 Female asleep
15.29 Female preening
15.51 Female wing stretching
15.53 Female to edge of nest box, then left
16.05 Female back, brooding chicks
16.16 Male arrived with kill - a Common Redshank, left immediately and
female feeding chicks
16.27 Female finished feeding so brooding chicks until 17.00
Thanks to Michael Hoit, Andrew Gorton, Julian Thomas and Ann Cleall for todays blog
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