Kestrels. Life in the box

Dad will have to build a new extension to accomodate the youngsters at this rate! They don't seem to appreciate being sat on any longer.

A very noisy food pass followed by an almighty feed for lunch. A rodent of some kind. Mum doesn't know where to sit.

Voles and blue tits brought in today, all four chicks still appear to be doing ok. No lizards, probably due to the windy damp weather, more difficult to find even for an expert lizard hunter like our male kestrel. Nest box getting very crowded as the chicks grow, the female isnt sitting on them as much now and she has spent  a lot of time standing at the box entrance watching whats going on. It was interesting watching her as she appeared to have a bit of an itch and was scratching a lot!

Them chicks look hungry,,wheres dad with the food..:-)

Don`t know where dad is today.Chicks have been boisterous this last couple of days first thing.

Thanks for posting webcam picture.

I wonder when she will finally realise the 5th egg ain't hatching?

If anyone was wondering where they hide when not on camera, I took this yesterday:

As you can see, she's still "on cam" even when off cam.

Now the chicks are bigger the female will stay out of the way more, thats a good place to hide but still be able to keep an eye on whats going on. Would have expected to have seen the male this morning, Im sure he is around. Not really good hunting weather at the momment!

Some impressive projectile defecation this morning. The last chick jostled for position before almost managing to jettison it out the window!

Just took a look in and a very soggy looking female trying her best to keep the little ones warm.... Looks as if its drying up out there now. Has there been much feeding today? I know they struggle when the weather is like this.....