Catbird wrote:
Some sad news about the Lesser Kestrel nest #3 at Elyakim in Israel . . .
Bosuil informed me that after the terrible, 3 1/2-hour fight on April 10 with an intruder in nest #10, there was another fight on April 11 with an intruder (perhaps the same one) in nest #3. Although the fight in nest #3 was shorter, it was enough to cause the female resident to abandon the nest with its four eggs. Sadly, the male still comes every now and then to nest #3 to sit and breed.
Sorry Catbird (or maybe, luckily ;-) ) I must correct you (maybe I wasn't very clear or ... your head was whizzing with all these new Kestrel nests popping up!) -
anyway, the Lesser Kestrel female in
nest # 3 left the nest only temporarily and has been incubating very regularly, sharing shifts with her partner.
However,
nest # 10 is quite another story. After the 3rd egg was laid 2 days after the long fight (now not sure which female laid that 3rd one, but we initially assumed the bird defending that nest + her 2 eggs), the female didnot incubate the eggs, but the young (first calendar year) male did, in the daytime! And very regularly, for hours. Gradually, the female started to do some very short stints of half-hearted incubating: taking over for a few minutes after the male left. Neither ever stayed overnight till now. The times she stayed grew a bit longer. The male brings her preys when she is inside, but often she'll stand at the window looking out, rather than sitting on the eggs.
It is left to us guessing why the female won't really share, and who she actually is (e.g., is she also young and a first-time Mom-to-be?).
Now today ... she has laid an egg (or should I say, another egg), making it 4 in that nest. But she didnot turn in for the night ... and not much will become of the eggs - being incubated during the daytime only ...
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