This is Apollo and Athena a pair of kestrels that are trying to nest here.
They face battles with buzzards and tawny owls.
But thankfully they've got six precious eggs safely inside.
It doesn't take long before the next opponent arrives.
A jackdaw lands right outside the nest.
With a full clutch of eggs to protect Athena quickly sees it away,
and calls for backup.
Together they see the threat off.
This is their second year together, but Athena is known to be bolshie.
Blocking Apollo in and calling at him when he's trying to brood.
She seems to want to brood herself and for him to go out hunting instead.
And she won't let him out.
Finally he squeeze past her. [Music]
And all is calm. [Music]
Soon he's back with a large vole.
She snatches it from him.
And eats hungrily. [Music]
As the night closes in,
Athena settles down on a clutch. She'll be incubating his eggs for almost
a month.
But soon another unwanted visitor is outside.
[Music] Orion a male barn owl from a nearby nest,
pays a visit. [Music]
But he's seen off swiftly by a protective Athena.
Who returns to continue incubating [Music]
The eggs are safe once more.
Like barn owls and tawny owls male kestrels provide food for the female,
while they're incubating.
The male kestrels also share incubation duties, and Apollo is doing a great job.
[Music]
Athena returns with danger hot on- her tail, the jack daws are back.
Apollo wastes no time with launching a high-speed attack, scaring him off for
good. [Music]
Thirty Four days after laying the first egg, Athena takes over brooding for the last time.
[Music] Females always take over when they sense
the eggs are going to hatch.
So I see this as a great sign. [Music]
And just over 12 hours later, the first chick is here.
It's covered in white downy feathers and its eyes are closed.
Four hours later, the second emerges.
Apollo arrives soon after with a meal for Athena.
[Music] He pauses in the entrance and then
returns for a closer look. [Music]
And sees Athena carefully feeding them. [Music]
Six and a half hours later, two more chicks hatch.
[Music]
Athena helps this one out of its shell. [Music]
The two older chick's eyes are already open, at less than 12 hours old.
[Music]
The fifth chick hatches the next day and is soon the size of its siblings.
[Music]
The sixth and final check hatches two
days later. It' will be at a significant disadvantage, with
it being so much smaller.
Let's hope it catches up with the rest of the brood.
At this stage female kestrels do all of the brooding and the males to all of the
hunting. Apollo has to shift up a gear while
Athena cares for the chicks.
He starts off well delivering a linnet and a vole.
[Music]
But when he delivers a wood mouse, Athena refuses to take it.
[Music]
He looks confused and leaves with the prey and doesn't return for three hours.
But then Athena calls him in.
And he flies straight in [Music]
She seems to be ready for food now.
So he heads off again [Music]
and delivers to a very impatient Athena.
[Music] But he isn't allowed in to see the chicks.
[Music]
[Music] Over the next two days he delivers 10 prey items,
but this isn't enough. Each chick needs about a vole a day.
And Athena needs three or more herself. [Music]
And she takes things into her own talons and goes out hunting.
Most of the chicks look to be doing well, but I can see a much smaller one.
[Music] I'll be keeping a close eye on this one,
over the next few days.
I don't want to go in now for fear of scaring off the parents and risking the
whole brood. [Music]
When Athena returns with a worm, it isn't the best sign. It could mean there's not
many rodents around. And things don't get much better as she
brings in more worms over the next few days.
[Music] The youngest chick is much smaller than
the others, and it's getting left out of the huddle.
I decide it's time to intervene, so I bring the youngest chick back to base
for some care. So I've been watching the kestrels at
Ashwood really closely and five chicks are doing really well, but this sixth
chick, the last one to hatch hasn't really grown much at all. And the
other ones are much much bigger now, they're stood up
about this high. And this one last night when I was there, was cold, it was to one
side of the others. And it clearly would have died either overnight or today. So
it's always a difficult decision, when it's a wild animal. But I took the
decision to try and help it, and see if we can get it back out there into the
wild. This chick's 11 days old and it's more the size of a four or five day old chick.
This chick it really is struggling to grow for some reason.
Despite my best efforts and even showing some improvement,this chick sadly passed
away. It's such a shame but thankfully, the
other five chicks are doing well. [Music]
With less mouths to feed, the food will go further.
[Music]
Soon deliveries pick up and I'm confident that all will fledge successfully.
[Music] Join me next time to see these kestrel
chicks get their ID rings. And prepare to take their first look at
the world, beyond the nest.
[Music] Thank you for watching and I hope you
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a taste of what you'll enjoy seeing on this channel.
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