Kestrels, lapwings and the circle of life
Post categories: In depth
| 17:36 UK time, Monday, 1 June 2009
We always say on Springwatch that nature writes the script but none of us imagined that the two of our families' paths might cross in such a dramatic fashion.
Before signing off last Thursday we were treated to the sight of four lapwing chicks and the possibility of seeing some kestrel chicks this week. When we left them, the lapwing family was doing well. The chicks had been ringed and the mother was working hard to protect them.
Our lapwing having a peck around.
Five hundred metres away, members of the Springwatch team inspected a kestrel nest box that they'd put up last year. To everyone's delight, it revealed two healthy chicks whose parents were so attentive they were bringing more food than their young could possibly eat all at once. Refusing to waste their catch, the female simply store the food outside the box for later - a common practice for many birds of prey.
On Friday night, there was action in the wader scrape and a kestrel was spotted eating something which seemed to be a chick. We didn't catch the kill on camera, only a long shot of the kestrel picking at its kill.
On Saturday morning we counted the lapwing chicks and could only find three of the four. But anything could have happened...
On Sunday morning all became clear. The cameras on the kestrels' box revealed three new chicks (bringing the total kestrel brood to five) and one of the adults was seen bringing in a lapwing chick. But how could we possibly know that a lapwing chick that had been killed 36 hours before was one of ours?
If you look closely at the poor chick's leg you'll see a small metal ring that we put there last week. Yes, that poor chick was part of the spare food that the female kestrel stored outside the nestbox when she had only 2 chicks. When there were five chicks to feed she went back to the larder.
Sad though this is, it is simply the circle of life.
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Comments
Thought you handled this 'red in tooth & claw' story admirably this evening. Not often is there an opportunity of bringing home the reality of the food chain at this level. Wonder if people are upset at the lower orders that were dispatched to feed the lapwing chicks and the other fledglings so far, I guess not.
It's another splendid example of why Pensthorpe is turning out to be such a great 'home base'.
Any chance please of a very common bird nesting sometime; I refer to the charming Wood Pigeon, who have never struck me as having the 'joined up parenting' touch from their daft antics in and around my garden, but I'm willing to be won over ;o)
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I would echo EnglishFolkfan's message about the 'food chain' story - We hardly have any right to balk at what a hawk might feed it's chicks on - after all - who eats chicken / grouse / pheasant etc!!?
Also our garden table is regularly taken over by wood pigeons and collared doves who knock each other over and attempt to mate in precarious places - as to their parenting skills, they must be successful they're certainly not rare, although I can never recall seeing a chick? They are a bit weedy though - I saw one rather large wood pigeon being chased off the bird table by a very annoyed great tit the other day!
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The Circle of Life.....Chris, are you trying to slip Disney songs into the show now?
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just watched the kestrel web-cam (1905) and the female seems to be feeding herself and ignoring the calls of the chicks. Am I seeing right?
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I'm sure most of the posters are not in the enviable situation to see such predation, especially "on the doorstep". However, I'm sure most of us have sparrowhawks raiding the garden or magpies and crows predating on smaller birds' chicks. It's just part of lifes circle. Talking about magpies, I have yet to see a TV programme or even part of a programme dedicate itself to these canny and beautiful birds. I wonder why ?
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I like the fact that Chris is not sentimental. We all love to ooh and aah over the cuties on the show, Chris, Gordon....sorry I mean the feathered and furred variety. But we also need to be frank about the fact that they are dinner to the upper food chain. My daughter was sad about the demise of the lapwing but excited about watching the kestrel chicks even if that meant seeing what they ate for dinner.
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Dear Springwatch. Keep up the fantastic work. Just one question. do your raptors fly around at night? because Our Kestrel Manoeuvres in the dark - and is well into 80's eletro pop!
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Haven't watched the episode in question yet, but follow the point anyway. I today saw three crows badgering each other, and then one dropped a large 'something'. This turned out to be a large wading bird chick (as yet unidentified), seemingly taken straight off the nest, obvious because it was dry and still very warm, with closed eyes. I hid the body under some nettles behind a barbed wire fence, rather than encourage the crows (ok, shout at me, I can't hear you!). Twenty mins later, they had taken it apart. Is this normal behaviour for crows?
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Dear Springwatch. Could you tell me where the male Kestrel and swallows go at night? I can only see the females on the chicks in the nest. Thanks, love the show.
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