Nearly a month old

The chicks will be four weeks old on Sunday and they look fantastic. As expected, they spend very little time in the tray, preferring instead to explore the walkway.
In two weeks time they will be taking their first short flights on the church roof!

Growing fast !

The oldest chick is three weeks old tomorrow.

They are hardly recognisable compared to those tiny balls of fluff in early May.

May 31st - Breakfast

28th May 2012

The chicks are now quite mobile and have been off exploring the walkway around the base of the spire.  They do not spend much time in the nest tray, perhaps because they go on to the north side of the tower where there is more shade.  They come back to the tray occasionally and the photograph below shows one being fed by dad early this morning.

May 25th - Early Evening Supper

The chick's having an early evening meal after a very hot day in Grantham, during which time the chick's spent most of the time sitting in the shade.

May 24th - Post ringing supper...

The chick's watching and trying to catch flies (all happens very quickly at about 12 seconds). Post ringing suppertime, for our recently ringed chick's.

24th May - Ringing visit

The chicks were ringed this morning, during which time the camera was turned off for 20 minutes.  This was just a precaution in case anyone phoned the authorities if witnessing the chicks being taken from the nest (the local police had already been informed by us).  Each chick was fitted with a standard BTO metal ring but also with a lightweight plastic colour-ring (orange with two letters) so that each bird can be individually identified in the field.   At the same time an extra 'L'-shaped piece of plywood was added to the far end of the nest tray to provide the chicks with some welcome shade..........and they made use of that shade later today - the hottest day of the year so far.