MANTON BAY - APRIL 2020

Good morning Mary. Been following you round the sites. Great 'Mary' sunrise!

Morning Mike - there are so many cams to watch now, can't get round them all very quickly, of course the first one I always open is Rutland to see if there is a sunrise or not.

Good Morning and A Happy Easter to ALL 

Day 14 - Maya checks her eggs

© Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

change over

33 arrives

Maya has flown leaving 33 to take over incubating

he soon settles down

© Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

Great view of the eggs in these captures Karen.   Hope all goes well this season, they are old hands at rearing four now.  Best of luck to them 

Thanks Mary.

Last year it was fascinating to watch and IMO their success was mainly down to the good weather. 33 is a great provider and fish was plentiful but as the feeds take longer, dry weather was needed that Maya was not hurrying to cover them up and the younger chicks got fed. There was one bad spell and thankfully the older chicks had enough feathers to withstand it and the younger two got under Maya.

One difference I have already noticed is the incubating. Last season Maya laid the eggs, 2, 5, 8 and 11 April - all 3 days apart however she did not start to incubate the first egg until the second was laid. The result of this was that Eggs #1 and #2 both hatched on the same day - 11 May. So it was like the older chicks were twins, then the middle and the youngest. This year she began to incubate as soon as it was laid so it will be interesting to see when they hatch for if #1 hatches 2/3 days ahead of #2 then the difference between #1 and #4 will be massive!

Maya has returned to take over incubating

© Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust

Latest from Rutland

A compilation of last season's highlights  - I wonder who they got the idea from 

Click here to access their  © Rutland Facebook Video

Hmm, I wonder, Karen!?! :)