The old camera in the jackdaw nest has been playing up a bit, so the images from the nest box have not been very good this week. The ladder is up next to the tree and, not being very high, the box is easy to access. When the parents fly off the collect food, I nip up and pop my camera inside and take a few shots. I can then take a closer look at how the chicks are doing. On Saturday, I took a picture and was pleased to see that their feathers are coming through really well and their eyes are open. All three chicks looked fine….
Today I nipped up and when I climbed back down the ladder to look at the photo, I was amazed to see that one of the chicks had clearly died overnight. These chicks are about 2 weeks old, and are being well fed from what I can see. I am not sure why this one died, but I hope the other two survive.
This shot was taken this morning and already the female had started to take parts of this chick out of the nest. Its wings appear to have gone in this shot and from what I can see from the camera image, she has been pecking at and attempting to remove the chick, bit by bit all day. If left in the nest, it would soon attract flies and this would not bode well for the remaining chicks.
Only time will tell whether these make it to fledge and if they do, then their real strife probably only just begins! It’s tough being a wild animal!