Juvenile male and three chicks

Yes, you are right.  The third egg hatched at about 0306 h last night, so Diamond now has three mouths to feed, which she is still doing, amazingly.

2nd feed for all three chicks
2nd feed for all three chicks

At a quarter to six this evening, she brought in some prey, already prepared.   I suspect she hunted for this last prey herself as she was away over an hour, but something odd happened at lunch time today, when Diamond chased our new male  out and then came back with a scrap of prey just three and a half minutes later.  I can’t work this out as it would have taken much more time than that to hunt, kill, pluck and mostly eat this prey.   Perhaps she is so desperate that she’s taken road kill.  Or perhaps he had something in a cache and gave it to her (that’s what I’m hoping).

The other male is quite young; I think only 1 year old as he still has juvenile plumage.  (I’m toying with Xavier, not because it means anything, but because it sounds like Saviour in English, but is less pompous, but he’ll need to prove himself first!).  He doesn’t seem to realise that she wants him to bring prey to the box….

Juvenile male visitor: Batman or Xavier?
Juvenile male visitor: Batman or Xavier?

20161006-new-juv-male-2

The reaction between Diamond and ‘himself’ has been interesting.  She has basically tolerated him unless he came into the box to start courtship behaviour, and then she became aggressive.

 

Don't come near my babies!Don’t come near my babies!20161006-1st-interaction-8

All three chicks were still alive at time of writing and just being fed.    And our new young chap hasn’t been seen since about half-past one.

Weather forecast is good for tomorrow and the weekend.  I have landcare/conservation commitments tomorrow morning, Saturday morning and all day Sunday, so flat chat, but will do my best to keep you up-to-date, although you seem to be managing quite well without us!

28 thoughts

  1. Xavier!
    6 October, 2016 – Shepnotes
    Does Xavier adopt a family?
    Does Diamond adopt Xavier?
    Stay tuned! (I did like Fetch too, but …)

    4.45 am USA * 7.45 pm Oz
    BUGS! Ugh! Diamond is glaring at them. So am I!
    At least nestcam works.
    We have this bird covered 24-7

    Doorcam is a minute or more behind Nest cam
    Bev (bcaw) is documenting, extensive notes and wrote –
    ‘bottom (nest) cam is now 4 minutes ahead of top cam’

    4:31pm in Oz Bev wrote –
    Diamond has gone to front several times, flew out on a mission.
    There are 3 moving chicks, one screaming up a storm
    – (LOL, the silent scream)

    5:43pm Oz – Bev wrote –
    Diamond is home with prey and feed has begun
    so far one chick is up, the other 2 are moving, another gets a bite

    loza, bcaw wrote – 5.48 pm Oz
    She was absent for almost 1h 20 min – has prey

    6:31pm Oz – Bev wrote –
    feeding again, 3 beaks and #3 gets some

    catwoman, bcaw wrote –
    I’m hoping if nothing else, the young male will bring her a food gift as part of a courting gesture.
    – (Ozcam is already suspecting Xavier is gifting her out in the trees.)

    bcaw has videos

  2. Keep the updates coming!!!! I’ve used half my monthly bandwidth and it’s only the 6th ….I need to upgrade during breeding season!!!!

  3. Cilla said “The other male is quite young; I think only 1 year old as he still has juvenile plumage.”

    I was being a bit tongue in cheek earlier when I suggested perhaps Tardy had returned to help his mum with her new brood – but… just thinking about what other people have said about previous juveniles helping out…. could it be possible?

    Absolutely LOVE the photo where Diamond looks enormous and he looks like a chastened schoolboy!

  4. Tardy was the first bird I thought of when I read “juvenile male.” But I guess we’ll never know. Whoever it is, I’m glad he’s here and that he hasn’t harmed the eyasses, and I hope he catches on quickly.

  5. A parent bird mating with its offspring and producing young is not unknown – so if its Diamond’s young – its ok

  6. I just posted a video of “Three busy little beaks at tea-time” plus a snap… presumably it’s been spam-blocked. Hope it turns up. If not and you would like to see clear evidence of the 3 active hatchlings, you could search for the title on YouTube 🙂

  7. Patricia and Sue, I too wondered if it could be Tardy…wouldn’t that be great? If so, he’s a smart little guy and will hopefully take care of his Mom and the chicks.

  8. Ok ….so what are we calling the little ones? We could call them Hewy, Dewy & Lewy and the new guy could be Uncle Donald lol

  9. Diamond (I think) is feeding the eyasses now. I can’t see what it is and didn’t see how long she was gone, but the babies all look lively and hungry!

  10. The video I posted a hundred hours ago 😉 still hasn’t appeared so I won’t post any more links. Suffice to say that all three eyasses are looking good and have had several meals – but I haven’t seen any prey actually being brought in, due to too many freezes. And I haven’t seen Xavier. If I have a nap now I can record the ledgecam on this laptop 😀

    It may be too soon to call the young guy Xavier, Shep – maybe we should wait for someone, hopefully, to prove himself worthy of the name?

  11. There’s the remains of some meal atm … and when I zone in on the ledge camera I’ve seen a bird circle around a couple of times in the trees… so hopefully “Whathisname” is out scouting around!

  12. A male followed Diamond into the scrape when she returned from a short trip. It reconnoitred all over and stole a leftover and skedaddled. All the while Diamond was in her corner feeding chicks (well, one of them could be seen). I’m doing video, with great difficulty 😉

    AND! Now he’s back, back against the far wall, it’s not frozen as I can see a chick moving under D’s breast, she has her back to us. No aggression, as far as I can see.

    Back later, if I can stay awake!

  13. He’s just left again. She just seems to ignore him but did go up close to him. It all happened as I just tuned in but he looked bigger than the juvenile male… more muscular and lean.

  14. Around 5.16 Diamond left the nest, the stream either hung for me or there was an IMMEDIATE swap of adults. A male came in, did a bit of sqwarking and work the kids! He had a streak on his left shoulder (was Streaks on both sides or only his left, I’ve only been able to see the one image of his streak though I’m sure I’ve seen more over time).

  15. I’ve just caught up with all the tapes and this is clearly a different male, neither the juvenile, nor Bula (as far as I can tell). I’ll start a new thread in a minutes. She seems quite relaxed with him, interestingly.

  16. This is the first visit (that I’ve seen) of the bold male, whom D seems to be tolerating very easily.

    Not edited much, you’ll just have to skip thru 😉

    Let’s see if leaving off the http www will allow the link to post – it should still work if C&P’d into address bar.

    youtube.com/watch?v=EqHkzvF9gTE

    Too tired for more, let’s hope everything keeps working and we can catch up with the dramas later 🙂

  17. And I’m sorry, but I can’t help you with links. I can’t put up videos myself, just stills. It’s Scott’s website, so I assume he would have to give approval.

  18. As that link posted, here are some “nice” snaps, showing that we can’t see his front view but does he look more mature?

    i.imgur.com/OfrleB7.png

    i.imgur.com/RJTFG4c.png

    Feef !!!

    i.imgur.com/MLDuE02.png

    Goodnight all, I hope you will report that he’s brought prey while I’m asleep 😉

  19. Scylla the look on Diamond’s face when he stole the food was priceless!! Nice editing… we need some background music!!

  20. 6.40pm- who was THAT who just paid a flying visit while Diamond is out hunting? Very orangey legs/beak – is Bula back?? The chicks were clearly making a heck of a racket and our man (not yesterday’s Xavier, I don’t think – bigger and more orange and a lot less streaky!) didn’t stick around. This is better than Peyton Place! *grin*

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