Chicks

When they were ringing these kestrel chicks, I was told there were three, but sadly I can only see two of them. The larger of the two is just beginning to fledge and is jumping in and out of the nest. The younger has still some of it's first feathers and is not ready to make the jump yet.

Kestrels normally lay their eggs at two day intervals but there seems to be an abnormal difference in the development of these two chicks. I'm just glad to see they managed to breed at all given the weather conditions this year. The parents aren't feeding their young as much as they did last year and I'm wondering if they're struggling to find food.

Lady D was here today. Whilst I carried on with my ploys in the garden, she took the camera down to the nest and got some awesome shots. Her blip of the elder chick, fluttering the branch outside the nest, is outstanding. I was very tempted to use one of hers as that wasn't the only little gem she came up with, but decided to take one myself later in the evening.