FalconCam Project

Orange is going through yet another dry and very hot week, with the peregrines no doubt finding out there’s little food on the wing or foot in the heat of the day. The ledge is now occupied most of the day by one or other of the young falcons, trying to keep out of the direct sunlight around the other side of the tower but with little wind the fanning of wings is vital to keep cool.

A little maintenance was done up the tower on Wednesday to secure the current old roost for another few weeks and to realign the cameras.

Taking cover in the shade from another Orange heatwave

Lots of aerial movement and goings-on around the tower today with both young males harassing mum for supposed lunch. It appeared that mum had left lunch somewhere in the trees and the two young males were nagging her, circling the tower, checking the roost and then darting into the trees, while mum sat patiently on the microwave dish mount around the side of the tower watching them.

Interestingly 2 days ago we observed a peregrine looking like Rosie, the young female, being pursued right round the tower and across above the treeline by a much smaller bird who was intent on scaring the peregrine out of its territory, with plenty of “peregrinal” complaining and directional changes! Needless to say when the game finally got boring our peregrine went in to a steep climb and then fell to earth around the trees to finally shake off it’s pursuer.  The game of speed and size had been won!

Welcome to all our viewers in 2010 to our FalconCam project. Plenty of activity to report up in the trees where most of the peregrine family has set up their territory. Unfortunately they’ve all become camera-shy and normally require a “stake-out”‘ by us in the trees themselves to catch a sight. Lots of calling and pestering can be heard still, which means they’re all healthy.

This current weather pattern must have confused them as the rains finally arrived on Christmas Day and the dry brown landscape turned into a more green and fertile prospect in the last fortnight, with hopefully more wildlife venturing forth.

This afternoon we finally grabbed footage of Rosie, the young new female, up in the roost plying in to a freshly despatched blackbird and she’s spent a fair amount of time learning how to make her way through the feathers before taking it on to the ledge itself where it’s easier to grip and tear. Initially she was harassed by another hungry sibling but she managed to shoo them away to get on with lunch.

Lunch for Rosie

A couple of good video clips were saved but are somewhat gory. Probably the best short clip has now been uploaded to view here …

Our peregrine family are busying themselves around campus and making quite a racket at the moment, although very tough to catch them on camera. Staff are reporting being deafened during classes in the teaching areas as the youngsters harass and learn from Beau and Swift.

On Tuesday evening one of the male youngsters and Rosie, the young female, were spotted sitting in the box, no doubt having finished off dinner which can still be seen as a large pile of flight feathers scattered across the view. We’ve also found remains of a crimson rosella and a feral pigeon below around the trees so the diet is varied.

Basic spotting will be undertaken over the Christmas/New Year break. Best wishes to all our viewers….

A big thanks must go out to everyone who has kept up with our peregrine falcon project over the many months and years. In this last 12 month period we’ve achieved over 7000 website hits from all corners of the earth. We’re very pleased with the coverage, both online as well as in the local news media … if only our falcon family knew of their own celebrity!

Another big 2009 thankyou goes out once more to our friends at 30 Squadron RAAF who have provided so much support for this project. A new web page is to be dedicated on this website very shortly about the Squadron and its wonderful members.

If you have any suggestions for us, in terms of website content, or better ways of doing things (inside of the current Wordpress system) please use the “Contact Us” form down to the right. Most happy to hear from you!

A very Merry Christmas to you all for 2009 …

Apologies for few photos available at the moment of our peregrines – we hear a lot up in the trees but any visuals are normally 100’s of metres away, and about the same in altitude! Great to see all three fledglings have been identified.

The last few days have drawn many comments from campus staff about the racket going on up in the surrounding gum and pine trees as the youngsters are no doubt keeping mum and dad – Swift and Beau – in line for dinner. Various aeronautical expeditions are undertaken during daylight hours and on Friday we were treated to a display of flying lessons where an adult would head for the horizon, closely followed by a vigorously flapping youngster complaining and trying to keep up.

With bad hot, drought conditions in the local Orange region at the moment there will be slim food pickings during the day but no doubt most wildlife will surface as the heat dies down in the evenings. With any luck this summer’s recent large bush and grassfires won’t affect the hunting grounds too much; always a consideration when vast tracts of land are burnt out.

(news post entry by Cilla Kinross)

I’ve been running around like mother hen as we have had a few dramas with our peregrine fledglings either getting behind, not getting enough food, sweltering in the heat wave, then getting ahead of themselves and taking off before the proper flying lessons were provided by Mum (Swift) and Dad (Beau).  One young (very naughty male) was recaptured near the new Dentistry Building on the ground after a ‘gliding’ mishap and popped back in the box and I was a bit worried about him as he took off again that afternoon (but could fly a bit, obviously, otherwise would be deaded).

The good news is that ALL THREE fledglings are alive and well (sitting in big old pines in the old fauna reserve between the Orange campus Dentistry Building and Chardonnay wing) and starting to fly properly, guided by the parents. I clearly saw each individual (Ronnie, Scottee and Rosie) sitting in their roosts.   You can tell them (with binoculars) from the adults as they have brownish spots right up to the chin, whereas the adults have white throats and thin grey stripes across their chests.

I don’t recommend going near them as it upsets them a lot (they really HATE people, I have to say; no gratitude at all for provision of nice nest box!), which distracts them from their proper business of learning to hunt,  and also you might get ‘bombed’; unlikely, but it  wouldn’t be nice (300 km an hour and very large strong feet!). Peregrine falcon banders who go to the actual nests have to wear hard hats for protection.

A big sigh of relief!

The last few days have seen the fledglings occupying the trees nearby while mum and dad patrol the area for any intrusions. We’ve made a couple of trips into the trees to see if we can count attendees and each time mum circles very low overhead causing quite a racket. As far as we can see everyone is accounted for, at different times and in different groups of trees.

A trip up the tower was made at the end of last week by two of us to clean out the roost and improve image quality successfully. It was an interim clean-out prior to the replacement of the roost very soon. At one point dad tried flying in but instead he circled a couple of times before finally alighting on the ledge (see pic. below); it appears he was either confused that the roost was empty or he was wary of us. On average the occupancy of the roost during daylight hours appears to be very low so we doubt there’ll be too much disturbance in the 25 minutes it will take to swap over from old to new.

Dad doing a clever balancing act on the outside

We arrived this week at work to find all three youngsters have now taken their steps into the outside world, and none too soon as the female chick was on Day 43, overdue to fly. The weekend was unbearably hot and she was seen to be suffering again in the corner of the roost, but with her departure comes plenty more hope.

Latest reports of the family of five indicate dad has been a regular visitor with offerings of galahs and crested pigeions while the youngsters spend time in the branches of the gum and pine trees below the tower. The second male was yet again found on the ground on Saturday but was coaxed away again and this time flew up in a wide arc into the trees, hence safe from terrestrial marauders.  Mum has been spotted again in the same trees and has taken over her territory from humans, becoming annoyed with any intrusions.

This morning the first male was seen on top of the tower trying to eat breakfast before losing balance and part-sliding down before opting for flight as a preferred solution. Phase two for the three fledglings now but hopefully we’ll get to see plenty more of them as they learn to hunt and spread their wings.

For now the cameras are quiet … and the rain has finally started this afternoon …

After our retrieval efforts this morning the day continued on with its familiar pattern of escape attempts. The extreme hot weather made life very difficult for both remaining peregrine chicks and for a while we were anxious about the youngest chick’s health and well-being. We believe now we’ve been able to identify the three offspring as two males and a female; the males mature earlier but are smaller whereas the females are up to one- third larger but take a little longer to mature.  This morning the two older males decided to make a break for it but the remaining female chick suffered as the heat was turned up; it could also have been a lack of food supply because in this weather – possibly topping 37-38degC up the tower – very little prey was braving the day.

Luckily about 5pm dad arrived with dinner and fortunes turned around. While she was eating we went for a walk through the trees at the foot of the tower and managed to locate one of the male fledglings and mum, who provided us with a fantastic  display of aggravated flying, and indeed showed junior how to pull a mid-air stall turn into the growing dry wind a couple of times above the trees!

There’s another day predicted tomorrow to be in the very high 30’s degC range but the female chick will be due to fly off any time now, as long as she has the strength. We have staff keeping an eye out for the two male fledglings and at last light tonight one was seen high up in a pine tree near home. We are still to confirm a sighting of the second male to fly off again this afternoon.