Fledge report

My apologies for the lack of report here since 28th June as I was spending a great deal of my time out there monitoring the family. I was however doing regular updates on twitter and facebook.
I am very happy to report that we have had no more major drama, only one juvenile who ended up in a spot where it shouldn't have and had to be given a helping hand to get out of.
At the time of last posting, the 3rd juvenile had almost made it to the top and the other 2 were still on the level where they had been released. That evening, I found these 2 at a slightly lower level and the next morning, one of them, I think the young male, had joined it and they stayed there together for the next day or so while the other one was already seen flying and landing usually pretty well. Some of those landings were not perfect though, in particular all the attempts I saw when it was trying to join its siblings were unsuccessful.
At last, on 30th June, for the first time after 7 days, all 3 were reunited on the same level, the one where the first 2 had been released.

The next day, people were coming to see the family and at first the juveniles were pretty elusive. When they go into the 'pancake' position to sleep, they can be pretty hard to spot... But, finally, we managed to find all 3 together, and just as they were about to leave, 2 of them took to the air, immediately accompanied by the parents. Landings were still cautious, but good, it was very nice to see.

Over the following week, all 3 juveniles have been gaining in confidence, both in their flying ability and in their landings.  I have seen them play tag with each other, then take food parcels from their parents. This morning I even witnessed 1 of them go and snatch part of a prey which the male had thought he could keep to himself by bringing it to his perch, which up to now had been pretty much out of reach for the youngsters.  After all, it had worked the day before when he brought a starling.  But not with this one, it was a bit of a fight but the youngster got it in the end and went to eat it on the nest ledge. The prey was another parakeet btw...

This was the same juvenile I saw a few days before dive bomb from the nest ledge to a fairly low level where I lost it behind roofs to find it behind me on a discovery tour of the neighbourhood.  This one is fairly easy to recognise because the top of its head is much lighter than its siblings (one of the others' head is very dark in comparison) with lighter lines above the eyes and I do think it is the first one rescued, the feisty female. It certainly fits with the character it is exhibiting now.

The weather was pretty dry for a while and the puddle on the nest ledge had dried out.  Almost immediately after we'd had some rain and the puddle had reformed, 2 of the juveniles took turn to go and have a bath :) Since them, I have seen at least one of them do the same every day, they pop back up on the side of the nest ledge with their feathers slightly wet and preen for a while. Luxury accommodation indeed, with private en suite bathroom ;)

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.

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...