Goshawk chicks

And so it's on to the Crested Goshawks and their chicks.  I got to say that I was rather slack not to have discovered this nest, a rather well-kept secret as I did not even notice the birds building its nest.  On the contrary I was trying to monitor another tree, having noticed some nest building activity there. So it had abandoned that one and built this one that's higher up, in a tree that's just one of many tall ones unlike previous lone standing trees.

These chicks definitely looked a couple of weeks old already when I spotted them.

Earlier in the day when I saw the male suddenly fly down, I knew immediately it was on a hunt but I didn't think that it was targetting another bird, and it got it, a Javan Myna.  At this point I still wasn't aware of any chicks until I spotted a female perching up high close by.

Having spotted this female I was curious why it was perching so quietly, and then only did I notice that it was actually standing watch, close to its nest.

Five days later, the chicks seemed to have more than doubled in size, however, one faster than the other.

This parent flew in suddenly and as swiftly it flew off.  It was not with food because the chicks were not seen to feed when it flew in.

The growth rate between the siblings was quite apparent going by the differences in size and feathers.

And the older one seemed stronger too as it was standing conspicuously throughout the ten minutes I was there.

The smaller one was seen mostly slumped over some twigs, hopefully not because it's terribly weak.

The other one definitely appeared more dominant.  Here's hoping that both will grow well into adulthood.

Unfortunately this is where I've got to leave the monitoring and hopefully these chicks will continue to grow well during the duration of the lockdown.  It's certainly something to look forward to when the taman reopens.