It is now 18 days since the first chick hatched out in Box3. This is about the length of time that chicks take to fledge, so we ought to have been on the look out for this. However, owing to an error on my part (I had somehow miscalculated this date as 1st June!) we were not prepared for fledging, and in fact did not notice happened today for some time!
At the start of the day, all five of Rosie and Will's chicks are still there with no hint of what was to come.
Donna's chicks are still doing well too. Here she is with a mealworm interrupting a chick in the middle of a wing flapping session.
Another vigorous wing flapping session in Box1. The chicks need the exercise if they are going to be able to fly immediately they leave the nest.
Shortly after 11 o'clock, I had a (self created!) computer problem and we were off the air for about half an hour while I sorted things out. Just before we went off the air, all five chicks were present as you can clearly see from this picture. (Will is on duty this time - as usual!)
Looking at the first pictures taken half an hour later, once I had sorted things out, you can see that apparently there are only four chicks in the box, although we didn't notice this until much later.
Here, Rosie has come in with some food, but only four chicks are begging for it.
A few minutes later Will is back with more food - and again, only four chicks beg for it.
The only conclusion we can come to, and this was much later, is that the first chick to hatch must have fledged in the half hour period we were off the air!
The remaining four chicks settle down - for a change!
At the end of the day, there are still four chicks in the nest box. At this stage we still hadn't noticed that one chick had fledged.
It's only by going over the replay record the following morning that we have been able to reconstruct what must have happened. By this reckoning, Donna's chicks could fledge in the next day or so!
Let's hope the fledgling survived its first night outside by itself!