Our Kestrels are now live on the Arne website! The female has been sitting on the eggs for 32 days so the first should hatch any time. She seems particularly restless today and sometimes you can even hear the chicks calling from the eggs. Who will be the first to see a hatched chick? It would be great to see everyones observations on this forum so we can keep updated with all the excitement! To see the webcam follow: http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/a/arne/webcam.aspx
Another vole this time, she was standing in the way so couldnt see if all the chicks were getting a feed, she is now standing at the edge of the box surveying her estate.
Another vole just brought in at 16.06 and all 4 chicks got a good feed :-)
Another feed, it was more of the the vole that what brought in a while ago. It still looks like only one or two of the chicks are getting the bulk of the food and she was taking a lot for her self this time!
A bad day for voles today, atleast it gives the lizards a bit of a rest! Another one brought in and fed to chicks, still dont think the food is being shared evenly! the left overs have been stored in the front of the box for later.
Hi everyone.Looked in at 1st light today.Little chick was having difficulty lifting its head off nest floor.Dad was being good breakfast waiter and did a spot of baby sitting when mum left with vole corpse (body bag) for a few minutes.He wouldn`t win any prizes in a "We`ve got it all covered" competition but I am sure he is doing his best.
Thanks so much to everyone - am exhausted reading all this and catching up but having missed it all live as have been on hols for a fortnight (which was also fantastic for birds) it's been great to read about every moment as it happened.
Mum looked like she was preening the chicks just then.
Feeding time. Looked smaller and whiter than a vole. Lizard perhaps.
Good Morning All!
Only just checking in on our (not so) little Kestrel family (too many nest webcams - not enough time!)
Thanks for all the updates yesterday, I was watching over them too, whilst sat here beavering away! Sometimes I thought all the little ones were getting food and at other times clearly one or possibly two had the lions share. I guess over the coming days it will become more clear.
Is 'the last egg' still in the midst there somewhere? I guess no chance for it now?
Mark, I don't know the answer to your question on ringing last year's chicks - this is the first year I've opened my mind to watching birds of prey! I'm sure the guys at Arne have the answer.
Hi All,
We haven't been ringing any of the kestrel chicks at Arne so it is hard to tell if this is last years young. This is (I think) the fourth brood we have had the privalage of watching at Arne with the nest camera and unfortunately with the kestrel we have seen the smaller ones not make it every time. The record fledged here is three...... With only two making it last year. We are busy doing our best to make the habitat as good as we can at the farm at Arne for small mammals. We have planted lots of new hedgerows and manage the existing hedges by laying them. We also leave 'rough' long grass margins. Unfortunately with the deer numbers this is hard to achieve, these mobile lawn mowers don't respect what we are trying to do and eat all our lovely long grass where small mammals would thrive! We do have some fenced off araeas that we grow an anual cover crop in (for farmalnd birds) and we have some beautiful long grass margins here. In fact you can often see a kestrel hovering over these areas.... If you get the chance come down and explore these..... By July we should have the cover crop field open with our 'bugs, bees and butterfly' trail where we plant pollen rich species to benifit these necter loving insects, truely is a spectacle on a warm summers day.