Sapphire Ridge Kestrel Cams

Excited to see all three start to tear into food themselves, the male grabs a robin nestling i found that had fallen out of a nest and the two females tear into quail i placed in the house last night. It won’t be long and i think they will be totally self feeding on food brought in.

Not that anyone is interested in seeing my mug on screen but this video gives some perspective on the feeding babies 18’ up in the air off a ladder, I’m just pleased that the likelihood of these three surviving to fledge is becoming more of a reality than a hope.

My late evening feedings are going smoother, i chop up mice into bite sized pieces and all three fed pretty good tonight, the smallest chick accepts the food very readily, after seeing a them tear into the quail and mice today I’m feeling a bit better about being able to simply place the prey items and not disturb them as much. If i can keep Mama from removing it…🙄

Miss K comes in later in the afternoon to remove another food item but gets corned by the chicks forcing her into a good feeding session with one of the quail i placed in the house, she ends up taking a portion of it out.

Miss K does an early morning check in and proceeds to take food out rather than bring anything in….🤷‍♂️ she later returned with a beetle, that was all that was brought in for the entire day.. its so strange, its like she has no interest in feeding them🫤
The chicks finally today started to tear into the whole prey items. They are growing and gaining weight so even though shes taking food out of the house there’s still interactions with the chicks which is important as I’m hoping shes around to feed and teach them once they fledge.

Likely the only feeding by Mama today, a quail i placed in the house last night. Even with her actively feeding the large female chick shows little attention, she must be eating enough of the food I’ve placed in the house to be content, she takes very little when i feed too…..

This Saturday mornings check in, its now very obvious Miss K has bonded with this male, her maternal instincts to feed are still present but in a very limited manner🫤

Heres yesterdays entire feeding, the adults brought zero food items into the house the whole day🫤 they did come in to check up and the female did feed them one of the mice i had placed in the house but no other feedings were brought in. Im not sure why they seem to be abandoning the chicks but Miss K and the new male have definitely bonded, when they do check in its almost as if they are looking to see if the house is empty yet….the chicks pretty much clean the meat pile up by the time i feed the next evening. I wait until about two hours before dark as by then there is no signs of the adults nearby so less disturbance. Im just glad there is still some interactions between them as once they fledge I’m hoping the adults take over the training and care of them. Very bazaar behavior

They are definitely benefiting from the supplemental food, here they are showing a bit of activity a short time after i fed them.

My first attempt at actual feeding rather than simply placing food in the house, i did feed a few pieces last night by hand but a long tweezers seems to not intimidate as much.
They actually did pretty good, they are getting more adept at tearing into their own food so hopefully in the next few days i can simply place mice and quail into the house for them to self feed.