Question about a new egg appearing

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Kris - Bob
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Question about a new egg appearing

Our female kestrel had a successful hatching of 4 kestrels about 5 days ago and today she laid another egg. I  assume it is the same female. Is that typical? We have a nest box camera and can watch the nest at any time. And have not seen any disturbance or other birds in the nest. It seems to be a white egg about the same size as the others she laid.  Last year we also had a successful hatch of 5 and there was no additional egg laid. Has anyone else had this happen?

AKP-Matthew
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Super weird. Any chance you have a photo of the new egg? And how sure are you that no other bird—for example, another female kestrel, or another species such as a cowbird—got into the nest box?

Matthew
AKP Staff

Kris - Bob
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The pictures and videos from the nest camera are not real clear as we are watching on an older tv.  We don't have the correct hook up to view on our laptop.  I am pretty sure that there have been no other birds in the nest as we watch it off and on all day and the nest is rarely left alone by either male or female.  She is taking very good care of the chicks and the egg. On the tv the egg looks white with the camera we have, as did all the eggs we've ever seen.  The camera doesn't show colors very well as there is no light source inside the nest box. But I am pretty sure that this is a kestrel egg.  We shall see.

 

Nu-Sun Cinema
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Hi Kris-Bob and Matt,

We are going to take a stab at the situation.

Did you see the 5th egg actually being laid ? If not we have a theory. Could this egg have been there all the time and was not very visible and with 4 nestlings this 5th egg could be a non viable egg. We have seen this with our HD Cameras where an egg was not visible (under other eggs, deep in the egg clutch or deep in the nesting material). Unfortunately if you say the other 4 nestlings are 5 days old when this 5th egg was laid lets hope it is non viable due to its late arrival chances of the nestling emerging from 5th egg and surviving is very slim due to sibling rivalry and siblicide, if the other 4 nestling have not already fledged. Also you are looking at approximately 30 days for egg 5 to hatch. This is our theory. You say your camera feed is not very clear. If you want to have a better view and hook up you camera to a computer its best to use a IP camera.

View our 2 camera HD LIVE STREAM link to

http://www.nu-sun.com/html/2020_report.html

Thank you and have a pleasant day,

Nu-Sun Cinema Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

 

AKP-Matthew
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Hmm. So it's possible somebody snuck in at a time when the nest was unattended and you weren't watching the feed, but this is pretty intriguing regardless. Things may be working now with the hatchlings still young, but as they're growing bigger and the parents have to be out hunting more the situation will very likely change.

Keep us posted! We'll be very curious to hear if the new egg hatches.

Kris - Bob
Kris - Bob's picture

The egg is still in the nest box.  All 4 hatchlings have fledged. I don't believe this egg will hatch as neither adult was tending to it. For a while the babies were snuggled around it so it was keeping warm but as they grew it was totally ignored. The nest box is very large and there is not enough bedding material for the egg to have just been there all along.  So somehow it showed up later. We may never know.  Do you recommend a better camera? I would love one that has better quality.  We've tried adapters to stream it to our computer for a better view to no avail.

 

AKP-Matthew
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We agree, unless something extremely unexpected happens the remaining egg isn't going to hatch. We're thrilled to hear the other four nestlings fledged though!

As for a camera, stay tuned. We don't have any specific models we can direct you to just yet, but we're in the process of putting together just such a resource and hope to make it available later this year.

Thanks for the update, and for participating in the project!!

Matthew
AKP Staff

Nu-Sun Cinema
Nu-Sun Cinema's picture

Matthew, we can definatly help with models, brands and types of cameras. Including nest box sizes, lens size etc. etc.

Give us a shout out and we are always here to help.  (e-mail   info@nu-sun.com)

We will be setting up to film some of the fledge.

Nu-Sun Cinema, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

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AKP-Matthew
AKP-Matthew's picture

Thanks very much! We'll be sure to reach out once that particular project hits the front of our queue.

Good luck with the upcoming fledge!

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