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
Hi Mark S, thanks for the update but i am suprised to find that the chicks are not being rung, especially with there numbers in decline !!!
As i am writing this Mrs K left the box at 11.15 , its now 11.24 and no return yet, has anyone seen Mr K this morning as i have not and i am suprised that she has left the chicks this long and such a young age,,,, maybe she is hunting ?? will wait for her return !!
Mr K has just returned with a vole, placed it by the chicks and is off again ???? chicks still alone and he did not try to find chicks ???
Mrs K has returned, just went straight in to brood and is actually brooding a dead vole as well, dont think she saw it ???
Mrs K still brooding chicks plus the dinner of a juicy vole,,,, the more i watch the more i am convinced Mrs K is probably last years young,,, god i wish i could stay and watch to find out what happens to the vole, when she finds it but i must go walk the dogs,,,
Hi Mark,
I, too, saw Mrs K leave the chicks for some considerable time 11.15 ish. The first time seeing this, a few days ago, I became quite alarmed and posted comments about it like a complete drama queen! The guys at Arne advised that there is a stick just outside the nest box, which is where she would have popped out to, which is out of view of the camera! They assured us she really wouldn't leave them completely unattended at this stage, so I don't panic so much now.
Meanwhile, to fill-in on the semi-brooded vole: Mrs K happily brooding and became distracted by the insects her box (oh, how they bother her!) She got off the chicks, looking at the insects, turned around, saw the vole, picked it up and started the feed. If she had been silly enough not to notice it before then she certainly wasn't going to let us know that!
As for the food sharing this time, her back was turned to the camera! Couldn't see the feed. She's just going to torment us with our gossip about her for a while longer!
12.35 food pass outside the box. Oh, she REALLY doesn't want us to see how she's sharing it out does she?!
Mrs K was just trying to catch some flying insects or something! It really did make me LAUGH OUT LOUD!
Has anyone had a clear view of all 4 active chicks yet? When she left the nest earlier they were in one big ball so couldn't distinguish easily. Every time I've caught a feed Mrs K has had her back to the camera.
Mark Singleton, thank you for your post, sounds like all of you at Arne are doing a great job for the habitat. I shall have to work on getting down ...
Well, whatever it was that was brought in then was big! Happy to report all 4 chicks active!
When Mrs K came in with the food, she went to the left of the chicks with back to the camera so again couldn't see them feeding. Then after a while, she moved to the right of the chicks (better view for me!) and carried on feeding them. So, perhaps she IS trying to make sure they all get a good chunk. I'm going with that theory! Mrs K rocks!
Webcam and listening to radio http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011ckl2 Good stuff.Lucky to have 60W speakers in digi piano.
I've just had a really good view of the chicks (there's 4) and there appears to be one remaining un-hatched egg?