If you’ve been following us on twitter or keeping up to date with our blog, you’ll already know that on the morning of Thursday 17 May the first of the kestrel eggs hatched. All five eggs went on to hatch over the course of Thursday and Friday. Mum will continue to brood the chicks for up to two weeks while dad is being kept busy hunting for the family. Typically he’ll bring in small mammals such as voles but will also target small birds which he brings to mum, who then tears it up to manageable pieces for the chicks to eat. Currently they are all looking healthy and well.
Despite still having their eyes closed the blue tit chicks are growing fast with their first flight feathers starting to develop. The parents are working hard to keep up with their hungry demands, delivering food on average a little over 5 times in five minutes with the majority being green caterpillars.
Not to be outdone, the stock doves that showed an interest in our owl box laid their first egg this morning.
Pigeons and doves normally lay a clutch of just two eggs on a very sparse nest of a few twigs, which they will incubate for up to 3 weeks.
You watch all these families ‘live’ on the screen in our Visitor Centre.