WHAT WE STUDY

2024 

It was a dramatic year as first the pair of wild Hobbies began laying nearly two weeks earlier than ever before (see here). Most likely, it was a new female with the same male (see here) and all things looked to be processing well (see here). Then things took as turn as nature is always full of surprises, and sadly one chick didn't make it. Happily, the remaining one did very well and was fed on birds and dragonflies galore. More surprises were in store as the nest was visited by curious local wildlife. First Grey Squirrel, then a young Great Spotted Woodpecker.

With only 30 days between the young Hobby hatching and taking to the wing so it's a quick turn-around for them! Here's the young male moments before he fledged. Finally came the day to test those new wings, see the nice clip for the moment of truth! The young Hobby grew stronger every day  in readiness for its big flight south and we popped back for a final (distant) farewell check a week later and took a distant image showing it alive and well.   

This camera is provided by http://wildlifewindows.co.uk and is brought to you by Dorset Raptor Study Group and Wildlife Windows.   

This camera showed live footage from a wild Hobby nest in rural Dorset, England. Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo).

2023 has been another amazing year on our live camera at a wild Hobby nest somewhere in rural Dorset. With hours of interactions, food passes, interesting prey deliveries, sibling squabbles and all kinds of weather, each year we marvel at how quick these little birds turn from a tiny hatchling, to a fluff ball, and finally into fully feathered young falcons ready to take to the skies.

This is our 2nd year filming at this nest and we think this is the third year the pair has used the same nest site. Given that Hobby mostly over-winter in the southern half of Africa, it’s amazing to know these birds have flown so far and returned to lay their eggs in the same 6 square inches at least 3 years in a row!   The camera system was set up well before the breeding season and involves a complex set of cabling, solar panels and wireless bridges across 5km of farmland to send the video to a location with good enough internet to enable live streaming.   

3 eggs were laid which is a normal clutch size for hobby. The first chick hatched on 5th July, the second a day later. The third egg was fertile but unfortunately didn’t hatch successfully.   The chicks were ringed (banded) on 23rd July. We think one is a male (BF) and the other a female (BD)…..although it is difficult to determine with certainty the sexes of all hobby chicks at ringing. We expect the chicks to take their first flights at about 32 days old.  The female could be seen bringing a variety of prey items to the nest to feed the chicks which include birds, bats and dragonflies. We know these are the same two adults as last year because the female has a particular white feather on her crown and the male has a small, metal BTO ring. The male was quite possibly ringed by us in 2019 only a few miles away although we haven’t managed to read the full ring number yet…..working on it.   

This camera is provided by http://wildlifewindows.co.uk and is brought to you by Dorset Raptor Study Group and Wildlife Windows.