10th May...disaster averted!

At 2-35pm the male rather clumsily left the nest and booted a chick out of the safe zone!

Luckily the female arrived soon after and gently retrieved her offspring. This is not the first time the tiercel has done this! Alan saw him kick the eggs out during incubation on one occasion.

10th May...one egg missing!

An interesting start to the day!

At 9-20am the female left the nest for a few minutes. Two chicks and one egg could be clearly seen. It seems likely that the other egg got tangled up and disappeared when the pigeon carcass was removed by the falcon yesterday (see previous blog.)

9th May..chicks are fed

Just before 5pm the falcon fed the two chicks from the pigeon carcass. She pulled off the tiniest pieces of meat and fed them very delicately to each chick in turn.

9th May: prey on tray

At 3-20pm I noticed the peregrine had brought a large prey item, probably a pigeon, onto the tray and the two chicks plus two eggs could be clearly seen. She appeared to feed on the carcass, but, as yet, I haven't seen the chicks being fed.

9th May - two chicks

Male did a two hour 'tour of duty' at mid-day, and I managed to get the above screen-shot at 13:50 during a lightning fast change-over. Difficult to see in the picture, due to the strong contrast between sun and shade that there seems to be two chicks and two eggs.

9th May - first chick

This morning at 08:00 the female lifted up slightly to reveal a tiny chick and half an eggshell nearest to the camera, but I couldn't see the rest of the eggs/chicks. The falcon has been sitting very very tightly for the past 24 hours. She would be aware that the eggs were hatching, as a chick takes around two days to emerge from the egg after making the first hole through the shell, and she would be able to hear the chicks inside.

Snapshot above shows the falcon with the empty eggshell

3rd May...could be an exciting week!

If all goes well, we should have some chicks this week sometime.
Incubation in Peregrines varies but around the end of the week could be about right.
In some years, not all the eggs hatch. (Last year she reared two chicks from four eggs.)
Can LBC members keep an eye on the tray from mid week onwards and report any white fluffy balls please?