Chick out the New Forest goshawks on the nestcam (From Bournemouth Echo)

Chick out the New Forest goshawks on the nestcam

8:00am Wednesday 10th June 2009 in

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THEY’RE only three weeks old but already they look pretty intimidating.

These two fledglings will grow into adult goshawks – the phantoms of the forest – so called because of their silent and dextrous flight through woodland in pursuit of small birds and mammals.

Recorded by the Carnyx Wild team, the pair were hatched in mid-May at a secret location near Lyndhurst in the New Forest.

The parents carefully kept four eggs warm in the nest perched high in a pine tree.

Sadly, one of the babies strayed too near the edge of the nest shortly after it was hatched.

The nestcam, that has brought every move to a devoted audience on the Echo website, the Date with Nature site and at the Forestry commission’s Reptile Centre at Holidays Hill where the birds are featured on a big screen, captured images of the chick going out of shot. But it never returned.

The other egg never hatched.

These two remaining chicks look to be born survivors, though.

Forestry Commission keeper Matt Davies scaled the 28 metres to the nest at dawn last Friday to ring the pair so they can be identified in the future.

He took a camera with him and snapped off a series of spectacular pictures.

The RSPB’s Hester Phillips said: “Adult males are smaller than the females, in general about two thirds the size. This is well reflected in our two chicks. The male youngster weighed in at 600 grams and his sister, a whopping 1000 grams.

“The ringing took ten minutes in total to keep disturbance to an absolute minimum. It was also carried out by experienced ringers with licences permitting them to carry out the task.

“The next ten to fourteen days will see the chicks grow very quickly as they develop their flying feathers, at which point they will leave the nest for the first time.”

• There is still time to name the chicks. Have you suggested names yet? Friday (June 12) is the closing date for naming the chicks online. So take a look at what they’re up to, and let us know what we should call them, at bournemouthecho.co.uk/goshawks