These Kestrel Chicks Are Flying Free After Their Tragic Loss | Kestrel Nest Cam | August 2019

This heart-warming film tells the story of three kestrel chicks now flying free after being rescued from a terrible tragedy.
Wildlife artist Robert E Fuller follows the day to day lives of birds via cameras hidden inside their nest. But when tragedy struck, he had no option but to take action.....
His story follows:
Days after all five kestrel chicks hatched there was a tragic turn of events in the story of this kestrel family. The chicks were just a day old when I noticed their mother slumped in the nest. I watched the screens carefully that night but when I woke up the next morning she was lying motionless, the chicks trapped beneath her. I rushed out to the nest. She had died in the night. 
I had to work quickly since the chicks were too tiny to survive on their own. I lifted her off and carefully took the chicks out from under her. Tucking all five two-day-old chicks into my jumper to keep them warm, I carried them inside and quickly found a box and a heated mat to put them in whilst I made arrangements for my local wildlife rehabilitation centre, Ryedale Rehabilitation, to take them in.
Kestrel chicks cannot survive at such a young age without their mother since although the male does bring in food for his growing family, it is the female that tears this up into tiny morsels and feeds it to her the chicks. I still do not know the cause of her death and sadly, despite my best efforts, two of the chicks died before they reached the rehabilitation centre.
But the remaining three chicks thrived and over the course of the next few weeks grew into healthy young birds. When they were four weeks old I got them back from the rehabilitation centre ready to be released into my garden.
They spent a week on my porch whilst I built an enclosure for them on top of a tower. I wanted them to be able to see the garden from this enclosure so that they would think of it as home. They spent about a week in this new enclosure, then, when they were six weeks old the day came to release them.
I opened the door to the enclosure and watched them hop out with surprising confidence. It was an incredible feeling to watch them as they flew free over the trees at the edge of my garden. These chicks had survived such a disastrous start and here they were now flying free on the wing. Then something even more incredible happened: after resting on the branch of a tree and testing themselves on the wing once more, all three fledglings flew back to the tower I had released them from. This was important because it meant that they saw the tower as home.
Over the next few weeks, I left the door to the enclosure open so that they could come and go as they pleased. It was fun to watch them explore the garden. It was amazing to see how inquisitive they were and I filmed them as they took their first ever dips in the garden ponds. One day one of them knocked over a GoPro I was filming them on!
Then came the moment when two of the kestrel chicks came face to face with one of the stoats in the garden. I don't know which species was more surprised, but I was glad the kestrels survived this first encounter. 
It was another two months before the kestrels eventually left the garden and set out to find territories of their own. I still miss the sound of them calling out to me whenever I step out of the back door but it is great to think that they made it despite their tragic start. 
Read more about the kestrel family in my garden on my Kestrel Nest Cam Blog here: https://www.robertefuller.com/diary/category/nestcams/kestrel-nest-cameras/

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I am a British wildlife artist based in Thixendale, North Yorkshire, UK. I build ideal habitats to encourage wildlife into my garden and use nest cams to study their behaviour. These studies inform my paintings. I share the best of my video research on this channel for free. If you would like to support my work please consider a small donation here: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=A52ZHAMJZC3J4

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Видео These Kestrel Chicks Are Flying Free After Their Tragic Loss | Kestrel Nest Cam | August 2019 канала Robert E Fuller