26 December 2022
37 days old . . . . and out and about.
When I looked over the wall this morning to check on the chick, the female was on the roof next to the nest box . . . and the nest was empty. Looking more closely though, I could see the chick on the roof under the box.
I climbed over to the box with two mice, and the female flew off down to the Tea Garden – from where she watched me intently. No food remains in the nest – so I left the two mice on the roof under the nest box with the chick. Back over the wall, and then down the stairs and out onto the lower roof to try and confirm that the female was sharing the food that I’ve been leaving.
She was already back under the box with the chick, and had a mouse in her bill. Instead of passing it to the chick however, she swallowed it herself. From my angle, I couldn’t see the other mouse (and she may have already fed it to the chick) but clearly, very little food was delivered by the male last night!
By Geoff Lockwood