D-Day

In the end I nearly missed it.  I had watched the camera for the last two mornings, wondering when the chicks would leave, so I was fairly sure today would be the day.  Operation Neptune, on the original D-Day almost 75 years ago, was postponed for 24 hours because of the the weather and I expect this D-Day was as well.  The chicks looked all set to go yesterday morning but it rained steadily all morning so that may have led to a change in plan.  I was up this morning just after six and when I switched on the computer I saw a chick peering out of the box.  I grabbed the cameras and ran to the car (parked outside the camera box) in my dressing gown.  The first thing I saw was a face peering out.

I just had time to fix the Panasonic to the car window when the chick jumped out at 06.22.  

Immediately there was another chick at the entrance and one of the parents soon arrived with food to tempt it out.

Over the next 10 minutes another seven chicks followed.  At one point there were three within 40 seconds as on this video clip.  You can hear a parent calling to encourage them.

Then it all went quiet.  A parent came back with food and peered into the box briefly before flying off so I assumed that was that and that I had missed the first one.  I was sitting reviewing the pictures on the back of the camera when I heard a cheeping from the box and another face appeared.

This last chick was very hesitant and reluctant to leave the box.  I could hear the others up in the oak trees and I expect the parents were busy trying to keep track of them and to find their breakfast.  Eventually the last chick left at 07.18, almost hour after first and more than 45 minutes after the eighth.  Unlike the others it flew down, and fluttered to the ground a few metres away.  So I picked it up and it sat on my hand, calling but not wanting to fly.  The chicks had looked so robust and confident when they were in the box but this one looked tiny and very vulnerable.

I could hear the others in the tree above so I put it on a branch as high as I could reach.

It was able to clamber a few twigs higher so I left it in the hope that the parents would find it.  When I looked later it had gone but whether it had joined the others or been taken by a predator I can't say.  It would have been an easy catch for the crows and magpies that are often around in the garden.

Most of the chicks will end up as food for larger birds but a lucky one or two might survive until next year to raise their own young.  This a hastily put together compilation of all nine leaving the box.