Our trio is growing so fast, Diamond is struggling to spread herself over them. Fortunately, both the days and nights recently have been warm (and much too dry). So Diamond is spending more and more time on the ledge. And it seems that she is doing an unusual amount of hunting, leaving the chicks on their own quite a bit. Of course she may be getting the prey from Bula, but she’s been gone for some quite long gaps and occasionally has turned up with prey while Bula has been with the chicks, a good indication it was her kill.
The prey are generally well plucked when they arrive in the box (more so than the last few years), so I’m struggling with identification, but there have definitely been starlings, pigeons, rosellas, one red-rumped parrot, and two red wattlebirds (on the same day). I got some nice shots of the latter well-plucked, after arriving intact, so have a better idea of what they look like when ready to eat (I didn’t think you’d want these pictures:))
The chicks are all getting fed (more fairly by Diamond, than Bula, it seems). But I’ve noticed that even Diamond doesn’t make much effort to feed all the chicks. Tumbler always gets fed first (or so I think, getting hard to tell them apart), then Walga, with Tardy often missing out, but usually getting some in the end, and they are all obviously putting on weight. Feeding times are stretching out from a few minutes a week ago, to one that was over 30 minutes today.
Our chicks have also started taking their first tentative ‘steps’ (more like shambles really). When Bula didn’t go close with his prey a couple of days ago, Tumber (I think) finally lost patience and went towards him and the others also made tentative ‘steps’.
