Chetney

5/8/23
Chetney is our miracle chick. Sadly, Chetney hatched out with multiple wonky appendages, but amazingly hour by hour he improved and by 24 hours old you would never have known there had been any problems! Chetney was a very calm, confident chick, unafraid of novel objects and was always very excited about food. Chetney was placed in a brooder with Chocks Away (YE) and Cyrus (XE) who were a little shyer than him. Chetney and his friends were a very calm trio who all spent a lot of time snuggling up together underneath their mop mum.
Up until this morning, Chetney has been content to explore the excellent feeding habitat of Ken Hill with brief infrequent forays over the coastal wall to the beach. At 6:47am this morning Chetney flew to the wash just south of Snettisham but quickly returned to Ken Hill by 10:48. Chetney has so far spent most of his time with Carswell (YJ), following each other to new foraging sites. This is very interesting as, unlike the other birds that he grew up with, he only lived with Carswell for twelve days prior to release.

6/10/23
Chetney has continued to forage alongside Carswell and the pair have also been joined by Custard (XP), they have remained along the coast between Snettisham and Heacham. However, for the past couple of days Chetney has travelled off by himself to explore Hunstanton, will the other two follow him, will he continue to go along, or will he return to their usual foraging and resting areas?

19/4/24
Chetney, Carswell and Custard have continued to frequently forage and rest together, moving off the beach and into fields as a flock with other curlew.

28/4/24
Chetney is the only one from his gang of headstarted curlews who still has his tracker, so our miracle chick is doing an outstanding job, sending data on his movements. He is still moving up and down the beach around Heacham with occasional visits to inland fields, which is expected to increase in frequency over the winter.

Originating Airfield: RAF Barkston Heath
Hatching Date: 28/5/23
Leg Flag: XX
Gender: Male
Release Location: Ken Hill
Release Date: 27/7/23
Current Location: Snettisham