Welcome to this 2024 live stream from a wild hobby nest in rural Dorset, England.
Eurasian hobby (Falco subbuteo).
This camera is provided by Wildlife Windows Ltd and brought to you by Dorset Raptor Study Group drsg.co.uk/ .
A donation to DRSG to help with our on going raptor study work would be appreciated. You can find a link on the DRSG website above. Thank you.
3 eggs were laid which is a normal clutch size for hobbies.
Egg 1, 2nd June 6:47 pm
Egg 2, 5th June 6:46 am (60 hours)
Egg 3, 7th June 8:04 pm (61.25 hours)
1st hatch 6th July 730 pm (incubation to hatching 31-33 days)
2nd hatch 8th July 230 pm 43 hours
3rd egg didn’t hatch
2nd chick died night of 13th / 14th July
Unhatched egg got stuck to the female’s feathers and taken out of the nest when she left (15th July 4:25 pm). Female returned soon after without the egg attached.
2nd chick removed from the nest and eaten by the female (16th July 10:28 am)
This is the 3rd year we have been fortunate to set up this camera and the 4th year that we know hobbies have used this location to nest. The adult male is the same male (he is ringed) but we think the female is a new bird as she doesn’t have the aberrant white feather on her head which has been present in previous years. We still don’t have a full ring number for the male but are fairly certain he was ringed as a chick by us in 2019 approx. 10km away.
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 broadband to enable live streaming. While we aim to keep this stream going 24/7 due to its complexity it is possible the stream might get interrupted....bear with us we will get it back running as soon as we can.
Hobbies (Falco subbuteo) are a long-winged migratory falcon which breed relatively late in the UK in order to take advantage of prey items such as juvenile swallows, house martins and dragonflies. Eurasian hobbies mostly over-winter in the southern half of Africa arriving back in mid-April to mid-May to begin the breeding process. 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 4 years in a row.
Notes: This is a wild nest showing wild birds doing wild things. The main prey items will be birds and dragonflies and some bats.
KZfaq chat will be active this year. As moderators of the channel, we will try to answer questions but are busy working and doing raptor study field work so won’t be able to answer everything. Please be considerate of others on the chat and be neighbourly. We reserve the right to disable the chat and/or stop the stream.
KZfaq video harvesters…..we ask you to credit Wildlife Windows and Dorset Raptor Study Group when you post. A donation to DRSG via the just giving page would be appreciated
gofund.me/c733ca40
drsg.co.uk/ .
Many thanks for watching and enjoy the wonderful world of hobbies!