Hobby - 2 eggs.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte) hobby - 2 eggs + parent.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

This is great! Look, two eggs already.

Here's your Monday morning lesson on the European Hobby, Falco subbuteo. The following quotes are from Eagles, Hawks and Falcons of the World by Leslie Brown and Dean Amadon, 1989, pages 809-814.

Weight of males is 131-222 g, averaging 180 g (6.35 oz.). Weight of females is 141-325 g, averaging 225 g (7.94 oz.). In the field this is a slim, long-winged, long-tailed falcon about the size of a Kestrel or a little larger. The male has slimmer, more flexible wings than the female, and in flight the movements are often very leisurely and graceful.

It is so swift in flight that it can catch such birds as swifts and swallows and in doing so it often dashes straight into a flock, seizing one of the birds in passing. It may also stoop on intended prey like a Peregrine, but much of its food is insects which it catches very often by simply passing and repassing through a flying swarm of, for instance, termites, seizing the insects in its claws and consuming them in flight. At such times its movements and wing-beats are often slow and graceful. Perhaps because of its liking for insects it is often active late in the evening, and can apparently hunt efficiently in poor light.

Food includes small birds and rarely larger birds up to the size of thrush, very rarely larger pigeons or game-birds. When insects are abundant it feeds upon them, especially in late summer in breeding areas. Bats are occasionally taken, and a very small proportion of food consists of ground-dwelling mammals. Practically all food is taken in flight, and the Hobby settles on a tree branch or the ground to pluck and consume its larger kills, but eats the smaller on the wing, including some small birds. Food is held to the beak in the foot in flight, and on alighting is nearly always transferred from foot to bill. Hobbies have been recorded robbing Kestrels of mice, which they then feed to their own young.

No nest is made, but the old nest of a crow or other large raptor, occasionally a squirrel’s drey, is used. Newly made nests may be appropriated as well as old ones, and in that event part of the lining is sometimes removed.

Two or three eggs are laid at 2-3 day intervals. Laying dates vary from late May in the southern part of the range to late June in the north. Incubation normally begins with the second egg, and is chiefly by the female, though the male takes some part. The eggs hatch in 28 days. During the incubation period the male calls the female off to feed, either in the air by a food pass, or on an adjacent branch.

The young hatch at intervals of 2-3 days, or together in clutches of 2 eggs. Feathers appear through the down at 12-14 days; they are feathered by 21 days, and make their first flight at 28-32 days.

The female remains on the nest brooding the young closely in the first week of their lives, and at this time prey is brought to the vicinity of the nest by the male, where it is passed to the female in the air or on a branch. Sometimes the prey is brought direct to the nest. In the later stages the female takes a share in the killing and fetching of prey. In pairs which feed mainly on insects this behavior is varied, the female taking a part from much earlier in the season, and the prey being brought at more frequent intervals than when birds are the main prey. The young continue to be fed for a time after they leave the nest, and it is not known when they can fend for themselves. They are on the wing by late July or early August in most parts of the range, and most migrate 3-4 weeks later.

hobby 3 eggs.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
A third egg appeared one day this week.

Hobby 7-6.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
Shift change with lots of vocalizations.

hobby 7-6 b.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
Perhaps this is Dad. He's not very good at covering all the eggs.

Some interesting observations today. First I saw the female incubating as it started raining. I noted that the rain was blowing in from the right, the open side of the box.

hobby 7-8 13-53-47.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
13:53:47 Sometime later I checked in again and saw this. The female has her head in the corner and the male is standing over the eggs. The rain is still coming in from the open side.
hobby 7-8 13-54-34.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
hobby 7-8 13-55-14.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
13:54:34 and 13:55:14 Then she stood up and looked around. The male hasn’t moved.
hobby 7-8 13-58-39.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
13:58:39 She moved to the perch, shook off, roused, and then flew off.
hobby 7-8 14-00-01.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
14:00:01 The male still hasn’t moved at all except for his head.
hobby 7-8 14-01-23.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
14:01:23 Gradually he crouched lower.
hobby 7-8 14-05-11.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
14:05:11 And lower.
hobby 7-8 14-09-27.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
14:09:27 Until he finally shimmied himself onto the eggs. He has been there for 25 minutes now.

hobby 7-9.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
This morning I see only two eggs. What happened to the third? Did it break? Was it stolen by a predator? Is anyone else here watching this nest other than me?

hobby 7-16 b.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
Patti, I've been away for a few days. It looks like there's just one egg now. I think this is the male and he's just been standing over it for some time now. I wonder what's going on here. Are one or both of these parents young and inexperienced perhaps? I think we should expect a nest failure.

hobby 7-16 incubating.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
I did see some incubating today, but...
hobby 7-16 night.png - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)
It is now just shy of 10:00 pm nest time and the egg is all alone.