An Artist's Research:
After not being totally sure whether or not the kestrel pair were going to finally take up Sycamore Stump or not. I am so excited to report that the first two eggs have now been laid on camera! Watch the video of the female as she lays two eggs. It is fascinating to see how she pushes the egg out, flicking her tail up and down and pumping her wings for assistance! Kestrels usually lay an egg every two days. A typical clutch is between 3-7 reddish brown speckled eggs, So it will be interesting to see how many she goes on to lay this year. It was sweet to watch how the male rushed into the nest to see the eggs, before sitting down on them as if practicing incubating. Although, unlike the barn owl and tawny owl, kestrels don't start to fully incubate the eggs until the full clutch is laid. It is largely reported that it is only the female that incubates the eggs, but last year I found that although the female incubates for most of the time, the male does come in and incubate for up to 3 hours a day, seemingly to give the female a chance to stretch her wings, hunt and take a break. So I will look forward to see if this happens again this year.
About Me: I am a British wildlife artist based in Thixendale, North Yorkshire. I use nestcams to study animal behaviour so that I can capture the individual characters of my wild subjects in paint. I've shared the best of my video research on this channel. I hope you enjoy it! See more too on my website: www.robertefuller.com
Music by https://www.zapsplat.com/
