LATEST NEWS

Over the past 2 days a number of people have pointed out the apparent pip in the 4th egg. It’s a neat round spot and very pip-like, but more likely it’s just a superficial stain on the eggshell. It’s probably a dab of falcon droppings or what we refer to in polite birding circles as “whitewash”. As for the remaining egg, we’ve now moved beyond its likely hatch window. This means that 3 youngsters will constitute this season’s entire clutch – same as last year. Again, assuming there is no 4th hatch, we can expect that the parents will continue to incubate the egg for another week or so – in other words, way past any reasonable chance of its viability.

 

During a feeding that took place this morning at 4:00, we were reasonably sure that there were only 2 chicks in the nest. The interior of the box is very dark at that time, but we could make out the forms of 2 white chicks. By 5:20, it was getting lighter and we could clearly see that Astrid was eating a broken egg shell. Eventually she shifted and revealed the newest member of the family.

 

Sometime during the overnight hours, the second hatch of the 2015 breeding season happened. On Sunday we suspected a hatch was imminent since a pip had finally been confirmed on one of the 3 remaining eggs and muffled calls were being heard from the chick inside. It’s hard to tell what happens at night in the box given the lack of light, but during a 3:42 AM feeding, the form of a second chick was picked out. By 5:00 AM it was only too clear that there were now 2 chicks! A second feeding took place at 6:10 AM.