A close-up feeding experience

In a maintenance climb of the Concrete Hilton this evening the opportunity was taken to film Swift feeding her three wobblies (they’ve gone past being bobblies!) with the handheld camera. The ledge camera was slightly adjusted and nest camera checked but the main reason for the maintenance climb was to shift the audio module up much closer to the eyrie itself. Mission accomplished and it will take a few days to adjust the correct volume, now that it’s just on the other side of the wall instead of hanging 2 metres below the action. Wiring was cleaned up and structural fittings were checked for health. And all done with the perfect timing of the din of rumbling sound as the tower refilled with water. With the combination of the noise, along with Swift’s concentration in feeding three urgent mouths, the moment worked out well.  The full colour video clip can be viewed here …

To give you an idea of size and height, which is quite deceiving in these pictures, the three eyases are already standing tall at about 240-250mm (9-10 inches). That horizontal line across the middle of the back wall (see nest camera images) is about 200mm (8 inches) high and is the bottom of the opening end hatch. All three juniors are taller than that line when stretching for attention or food. You’ll also notice the first signs of wing and tail feathers. Our favourite little bobble-heads are growing up too fast!