Goshawks Furzey and Denny ready to take flight (From Bournemouth Echo)

Goshawks Furzey and Denny ready to take flight

12:13pm Monday 22nd June 2009 in

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NAMES chosen by Daily Echo website user Rowena Wynne have been selected for two rare goshawk chicks monitored by a nestcam in a New Forest wood during the first weeks of their lives.

Viewers saw the parent birds keep the eggs warm on the nest.

Three of the eggs hatched but a fourth was not viable. One of the chicks got too close to the edge of the nest, high in a pine tree at an unknown location, and tumbled over the edge, never to be seen again.

The remaining pair, meanwhile, have been growing bigger and stronger as the days get longer.

Soon they will be flying the nest.

Rowena, who lives in Christchurch, suggested naming the female chick Furzey after Furzey Lodge and Gardens in the heart of the forest in Minstead and Denny after Denny Wood, for the male.

She has kept up to date with the chicks both on the web and in the pages of the Echo and said she was “chuffed to bits” to have had her names chosen.

Hester Phillips of the RSPB said: “It’s great to finally have names for the chicks.

“We had loads of excellent suggestions, so choosing a winner was pretty hard. The newly-named Denny and Furzey are doing really well.

“Both mum and dad are bringing in plenty of food and the chicks are spending a lot of time flapping their wings from the side of the nest to test them out.

“We’re expecting them to take to the skies very soon.

“Then we’ll be turning the attention of the raptorcam onto a hobby nest, and we will start the show all over again.”

The nests are being filmed by Carnyx Wild, the RSPB, New Forest NPA and the Forestry Commission.

• Catch up with what is happening in the nest at bournemouthecho. co.uk/goshawks