0900: Female (I think) on egg. One eye opening and closing
0910: She pecks at gravel.
0911: Male calling from out of shot. Female gets up and leaves box. Chirruping heard from outside.
0914: Male comes in to box, bobs over egg then repositions it with beak and sits down briefly
0915: He chirrups then repositions egg.
0919: Male chirruping.
0928: Male snoozing, each eye opening and closing independently.
0942: Male bobs on egg then settles down.
1010: Male having a good snooze.
1016: Male is alert , bobs on egg and then settles down.
1019: Male shuffling about pecking at gravel. He then stands to reposition egg with beak, then does some more bobbing. He settles down
1028: He briefly raises on egg, and repositions it further underneath him.
1035: He has a snooze.
1043: Male briefly alert.
1044: After a quick snooze he has a good look around.
1057: He looks up suddenly then relaxes.
1100: End of shift with church bell ringing the hour.
11.01 am The tiercel, who has been sleeping on the egg shuffles around and pecks at the gravel before repositioning himself, facing east. 11.40 am The tiercel awakens and looks sharply at the camera. There is no sign of disturbance from outside of the box and after a shuffle about he soon settles down again on the single egg. Between 11.47 and 11.49am The tiercel is becoming increasingly more alert and he makes a few reassuring chipping noises, presumably to the female who is close by. He then continues his restful behaviour. 11.59 am The Falcon lands on the Church roof outside the box. They both chip to each other and she slowly walks towards the box, hopping in at just gone noon. She sits on the edge of the far right hand side of the box whilst the Tiercel remains in situ.
12.03 pm The Falcon prompts the tiercel to leave the egg and as he flies from the Church, she takes her time to inspect the egg and eat at the surrounding gravel around the egg, before settling on the egg, the opposite way to which the tiercel had been for most of the morning.
12.23 pm Whilst on the egg the Falcon becomes more fidgety and frantically pecks at the gravel in her vicinity. She then stands up to reach gravel further away from her. Settled back on the egg for just a moment she reaches to the opposite side of the box before standing up facing the back of the box. At 12.27 pm she settles back down on the egg – is this fidgeting a sign that another egg is imminent? 12.29 pm More restless behaviour from the Falcon as she continues to move around the nestbox as the Tiercel can be heard calling a couple of times in the background. 12.34 pm The Falcon hunkers down as it begins to sleet. The weather gets progressively worse and the female remains in place and gets a little wet.
13:15 The egg is left unattended whilst the Falcon has a nest break.
13:32 The Tiercel brings in prey and the falcon is sat just behind the nest box.
The tiercel with prey (male house sparrow ref Ed Drewitt)
14:03 After her meal the Falcon sits just outside the box
The tiercel takes over incubation duties.
Thank you to todays team Andrew, Mike, Chris and Ed Drewett.
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