Accidental fledge

Yesterday, 9:25:13 the third juvenile was sitting and preening on the wall in front of the nestbox:

9:25:26 - Mum arrives with a pigeon:

9:25:27 - this spooks the juvenile who flies off:

9:25:28 - the juvenile has fledged, thanks Mum!

Mum then just looked on then dropped below with the pigeon before getting back on the wall and start eating. I unfortunately narrowly missed it live, it's only after not seeing the juvenile for a while that I checked the recording. Seeing how unconcerned Mum was gave me an indication that the juvenile was fine and I managed to find it pretty quickly and it looked indeed fine. It also was at a level not that much lower than the ledge, way higher than its brother, due to the fact that it was a lot more ready.

I saw it briefly today at 4:30 and then didn't locate it until just before the thunderstorm, almost all the way to the top, which was great to see. I wasn't sure though until after the thunderstorm when I managed to see the whole family at the same time.

the chicks and water

This is the start of the post I was writing last week when the drama started, I thought I should at least publish that part, with a small addendum.

They've been growing so fast I have found it quite hard to follow on this blog, my apologies. I hope most of you kept up to date with the photos I posted daily to the flickr alhum and the twitter updates, and now with the facebook page. In retrospect, I probably should have started the facebook page from the word go... I can hardly believe that one or more might have taken its first flight in 7 days time...

My last proper blog post related to Day 23, we are now on Day 36. What I thought was exceptional then has been repeated time and time again by 2 of the chicks (though I can't be sure it is always the same 2, but there always seems to be one a bit more wary of the water). Prior to this, we had been talking of ways of preventing standing water on the nest ledge for future nesting seasons, but I am now not so sure that it is desirable to get rid of it totally...

On Day 29

On Day 31

On Day 32

On Day 35

You get the picture...

When it got so hot on Sunday, the remaining juvenile took to sit in the water for short periods, I presume to cool down:

Day 38, the second juvenile rescue

The second juvenile has been found and brought up to the roof where it has joined its sibling.

First, I also took a few photos with Dave's camera of the first one which he has kindly sent over and I thought I should share them with you first:

The young female after Dave removed the box which had been put over her (to contain her but also to minimise stress) wasn't going to get caught without a fight, but Dave has the technique and he had her in hand in no time

Once on the roof and out of the box, she wasn't to wait for no camera, she was out of there like a Jack-in-the-box!

Now, to the second one. The immediate ground area had been checked on Thursday evening and Security had promised they'd keep an eye on their rounds, so on Friday I went up and down the building looking for vantage points to check all nearby lower roofs, the only result being that we knew where it wasn't but still not more enlightened as to its whereabouts.

On Saturday morning, as previous one, I saw the parents feed the one on the roof, the one on the ledge, then have a rest, so they were not feeding the other one locally. However, one of them could be gone for long periods so it was still possible that they were feeding it some distance away. I had called the local vets and no bird of that description had been reported or brought in. There was hope.

I had enlisted the help of Louis and he was updating me on what he had seen when the female suddenly started flying in circles in front of the building, a fairly typical behaviour when trying to entice a youngster to fly away. Louis rushed on his bicycle to see if he could spot the juv but had no luck. I similarly had no luck for the following hours.

I was updating Dave when we received a call from Security, the juvenile had just been reported. I immediately went to check it. It unfortunately was under windows and by now more people were massing to have a look at it and it was getting stressed, trying to fly into the wall rather than the outside. I also enquired if anyone had seen him being fed and no one had done, which fitted with my observations. We then decided with Dave that the course of action was to catch him and release him in the same place as his sister.

While waiting for Dave to arrive, I kept an eye on the juvenile though it was really hard to see even knowing where it was. I also phoned TOH to let him know I wouldn't be home to cook dinner and to order a pizza. After Dave arrived, we were escorted where the bird was, Security had been efficient and had already brought the box. Dave caught the juv, confirmed it looked in good shape and we started the trek up to the roof again. As I passed the box up to Dave on the ladder, I could feel the juvenile 'fight' inside the box and was glad I had chosen a pretty solid box.

Once out of the box, the little one didn't want to let go of the glove.

Dave had to work his magic:

Unlike his sister, he didn't move once freed, just staring at us:

As it happens, his sister was in the far corner, looking at us:

By the time we were out of the building, said our goodbyes, he had joined his sister in the corner :) I watched them for a few minutes and went home to eat that pizza, it was most welcome :)

You can also read Dave's account of the rescues, as well as that of another one elsewhere on his blog or his Parliament Peregrines blog.

Day 36, juvenile rescue

I was in the middle of writing a post about the chicks' development this afternoon when I received a phone call: "one of the chicks is in our courtyard". We were in the middle of preparing for fledging which I thought would not come until next week so this was taking us a little bit by surprise.

Reviewing the recording, at 14:09, the chick went to the right hand side of the ledge and leapt over the parapet. The courtyard where it was found was on the other side of the ledge so it must have managed some flying. The workers who found it managed to put a box over it and we waited for Dave to come over to check it and release it to the roof.

By the time Dave arrived, we had realised that a second chick had left, in exactly the same way, at 15:31. It has been looked for but not found yet.

Dave got the box off the chick and gave it a good inspection. Verdict: a female, in good condition, but looking like 2/3 days from fledging. Very feisty and very strong, she didn't want to let go of the gloves when Dave put her in the box...

As you can see, feathers fully developed, but still a bit of down at the base of the tail.
We brought her up all the way to the roof, above the nest ledge and quickly left.

She quickly jumped onto that wall on her left and must have followed it around the building as I found her (at least I think it's her) above her parents a while later.

As I am typing this, the third chick is asleep in the nestbox, it must be feeling lonely...

4 weeks old!

I can't believe the chicks are 4 weeks old and they have grown up so much since the 3rd week!
I couldn't find a shot with a chick in quite the right place, but I think the shot I chose in the end illustrate how much the wing feathers have come in just 7 days:

Day 23: aquatic adventures

Towards the end of the morning, Dad came to feed the chicks, though he looks a bit daunted by the prospect in this shot:

Then, one chick started wandering:

Then another:

What they didn't realise was that it was going to rain, and quite hard, and they took refuge in a corner to shelter from the rain:

Photo by Dave Morrison

One of the chicks braved the rain and came back to the nestbox about half an hour later, looking a bit bedraggled:

2pm, and the second chick was still in the corner, but enjoying a spell of sunshine:

It took food to finally drag it back to the box:

However, as soon as this one was back, another one decided to go and have fun in the puddle:

After 10 minutes, it decided to come and join Mum and the others back in the box, and made a rather undignified re-entry:

Anyone else seen this kind of behaviour before?

Day 22: 3 weeks old

Hot on the heels of the 2 weeks comparison montage, I give you the 3 weeks one:

The increase in size since the previous week is not that obvious in this shot, but the change in posture is, and there is some feathering around the face.

The trio, when not asleep, are a lot more mobile and adventurous. For the first time, at the beginning of this afternoon, they all went out exploring outside the nest box. Only one had done it sofar, for about 2 minutes yesterday evening.

2 weeks old

Apologies for the silence, we had developed a fault and couldn't connect to the cctv cameras for a while. The system was still recording images and I have spent some time looking at past footage once we were back and running, so I could update the weekly comparison montage.
I found a chick in almost the same spot as where they hatched. The light was unfortunately not at its best, but the growth is obvious.

What is also obvious is how messy the nest has become...