It’s been a few days now since we last saw one of this season’s three youngsters. It may well have something to do with the bad weather, but it will no doubt also be influenced by all three maturing and attaining more independence. With some luck they’re all becoming adept at hunting.

Indeed since earlier this week we’ve only been accompanied by Swift and Beau who may be feeling more “at home” once more, now that their offspring are flying off to new regions on their own. Swift has spent many hours on the ledge , with an entire overnight the other evening. Beau also comes home to roost and if you’re lucky you’ll catch either/or in the cameras during the day, most often at dawn or dusk.

In saying that here’s a shot from earlier this week of the last sighting of a yearling, taking a snack:

Dining in

With some pretty average weather, violent storms last week and rain predicted this week, it’s a quiet time in the trees, although regular feedings (or pleading for feedings!) can be heard every day still. The youngster roll call has reached two at any one point in time since last year so we can but hope that number 3 is safe and sound elsewhere. This period has given us an opportunity to breathe again and plan ahead for this year. The priority for us now is to achieve funding for the second HD camera. This first camera, to appear soon on the streaming pages, is vastly superior to our our older models, and a second unit will replace the current ledge camera. We’re well on our way in $ terms, thanks to our brilliant supporters from every walk of life! Once improved vision is in place we’ll be looking further towards upgrading our two servers as they’re old and running very close to 100% most of the time, but in saying that they’re very reliable and proving their current worth.

The feeling of the day

The worst of the storms have passed by (more later this week), with fortunately no serious damage to equipment nor peregrines, although I gather there were a few nervous moments up top too. During the storm a video clip was run, (just in case!) showing one of the youngsters trying to shelter on the microwave dish arm – just about the very worst place to be during one of our storms! Luckily nothing happened but the audio in this clip is an indication of what went on for about 45minutes around us.

Also some really nice quality video footage of Beau running an eyrie tour inspection the other day. Interesting his desire to “scrape” at this point in time but good to see him. All family members are finally getting used to the new “eye” in their eyrie too.

Siblings together once more

If you’re currently having problems with the cameras it could be that the sky is at present falling on our heads in Orange. A severe and very direct storm is passing overhead and has required 2 restarts to the streaming & monitoring servers. Hang in there – normal transmissions will resume as soon as possible!
All falcons have hunkered down elsewhere, which is a good move as no doubt Beau remembers being caught on the microwave dish 4 years ago when a direct hit struck the tower & flashed across campus. The only (other) bright news from amongst the 50 dead computers & printers that day was that 3 days later our first born, Migii, miraculously & against all laws of nature, hatched!

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An unusual moment of interaction late this afternoon up on the tower. Swift was quietly sitting on the small WiFi antenna on the north side of the tower, sunning herself in the hot summer glare, when Beau arrived and started urgently bowing and chirping away to her from higher up on top of the ridge. One of the youngsters swung around from above the trees and as it attempted to land next to Beau he hopped along and pushed it away, before following it down over campus and out in to the northern yonder, all the while being harassed by his offspring. Eventually Beau quietly returned to settle on the ledge, no doubt without realisation that Swift is still just around the corner! This behaviour is reminiscent of most probably what’s to come in the next 3-4 months as the youngsters will be driven off for good near the end of summer/beginning of autumn. Debate continues as to why this was such a dominant display by Beau. Of course it would have to be a day where the SLR camera was absent. All comments welcome!!

Just noticed an article from over the Tasman Sea in New Zealand about a new New Zealand Falcon chick hatched at Staglands Wildlife Reserve near Wellington. Very cute photo of a very young eyas, but  alarmingly low numbers for yet another species in trouble. Great to see more recovery efforts making a difference – “Fast life for a little predator” (Stuff.co.nz, 13-01-2012).

There’s little to report from up the Concrete Hilton over the weekend, with one video clip ready  to upload (troubles uploading; will repair ASAP). The good news is that the new HD camera is running beautifully and the paperwork is going in to CSU’s DIT people shortly to allow us to change over from the old camera to the new nest camera. There will also be some security upgrades to the server undertaken.

Visits to the trees and in to the eyrie are patchy at the moment but most of the peregrines are still in the area. Going home back down the road the other evening I witnessed a writhing starling mass, similar to a shoal of sardines in a panic, above some pine trees. As I drove closer I was passed going the other day at high speed & low altitude (i.e. car height) by one of the young falcons who must have terrified the starlings in to panicking but seemed far more determined to get home than to harass the potential dinner menu.

More activity in the cameras this morning with a feed supplied by an adult (most probably Swift as she’s been back with us more recently) and voraciously accepted by the young’n. Calm then returned after a lengthy meal, with some very generous poses, contemplating and preening.

Video clip of the day – 2 of the 3 youngsters enjoying time together, away from the blustery day outside.

Quiet time together

Little activity to report over the weekend, with weather ranging between lightning storms and brief driving rain, to high humidity and bright sunshine. Hard to know, as a peregrine, whether to stay under cover or to be out in it!

This morning saw one of the young’ns gleefully accepting a bite and then playing with breakfast before eating.

We’re having fun getting used to the new HD camera, with the odd video clip and occasional photo. No-one’s been staying over for the last few nights but Swift hopped in not long ago with a little food which she placed in the corner before hopping out again. She’s camera-shy but one brief frame showed her off:

Swift briefly

Male, Beau, has appeared occasionally and he seems intent on preparing the nesting scrape from this season. Doesn’t stay long but at least he smiles to the camera!

Hope all our viewers and supporters have had a safe and healthy New Year – welcome to 2012!

With the HD camera now fitted and operational we’ve got our first brief activity video clip available – a remarkable quality improvement over our existing nest camera. Here we see one of the youngsters paying a visit very early this morning. We’re still tweaking the camera settings, and this week will be speaking to CSU to bring the camera online via the website but for now our existing two cameras are still running happily.

Addendum: Just found some colour daylight footage from yesterday as well – how good are those peregrine falcon colours, and how inquisitive of the new thing hanging on their wall!

The night peregrine

One of our last tasks for 2011 has been to install the new and much-vaunted Axis 3344 HD camera. It’s a great model and works perfectly with our Milestone XProtect surveillance software package. We’ve also run some live streaming tests and initial results are very good. For now the world will have to wait for CSU to return to work next week before we can put the paperwork through the system to modify the nest camera feed to this new camera on our webpage. Stay with us for a bit longer!

At this point I’d like to give a huge thanks to Basil at Lan1 in Melbourne for all the months of discussions (and a meeting in Melbourne) we’ve had about IP cameras, appropriate technology, configurations and ultimately the recommendation and supply via Shane at IP Video Solutions. Basil and Shane saw our vision and share our enthusiasm. We wouldn’t have got to this point without them – cheers guys, appreciated! More to come; we’re now well on our way in funding for the second HD camera & upgraded servers, and we have some new ideas for Basil and Shane too …

It was a gamble, as usual, to find a “window” of vacancy up the Concrete Hilton and there were some tentative moments when a feeding took place down below in the trees, with one near fly-past but ultimately no disturbance. The minimum amount of time was spent with the hatch open and on descending the tower a young bird was noticed quietly sitting on the microwave dish just around the corner. Monitoring shows at least one youngster still spends most nights in the eyrie.

Rob Bicknell from 30 Beaufighter Association dropped in just before Christmas and left us with a list of amazing close-up images from the camera trip earlier in December. With Rob’s permission we’ll make some shots available shortly, and you’ll also be able to see some examples at future public events & talks. Outstanding work – thanks so much, Rob!

Happy New Year to all our supporters and viewers, from FalconCam Project members Cilla, Scott, Ron and Ian!

A very big thankyou to everyone who visited and supported us this year. It’s been easily the biggest and most successful year yet for the Project and our ambitions. We hope that Santa doesn’t swing too close to the tower because he’s going to get a big fright, especially if the reindeer aren’t sure how to handle a 320km/hr flying dodgem car!

Campus is out for the break until 3rd January but the Project team will be making regular visits to check on activities in the trees. In what they’re calling the coolest lead-up to summer in Orange on record we doubt there’ll be food supply issues. With some luck, and a break in eyrie occupancy, we’ll also get the HD camera finally mounted and running. Then to wait until we can get CSU to update our web pages so all can see.

Best wishes to you all – you’ve all played a major part in FalconCam Project this year and your support is appreciated. It enables us to move on up, giving improved better results and views, and we hope we’re providing a valuable resource for the advancement of knowledge on peregrines falcons and raptors in general…

With a week predicted to be possible showers and dodgy weather at best we hope to continue receiving ongoing visits from the peregrine clan. The ledge has been quiet over the last few days, and in the rain this morning Swift arrived to take cover. Amusingly she was caught out yesterday by one of her youngsters in her favourite hiding spot, around the corner on the old microwave dish. She sits there when the youngsters are in attendance, but she was finally “bounced” and spent about an hour getting an ear-bashing from the youngster who had taken residence next to her on the dish itself… all to no avail!

For the CSU students who follow us here keep an eye out in the latest CSU Student News as we have another article being run – thanks for asking us again Kate P! We are also booked in to give a brief Project talk to the Orange Field Naturalists group in early February at their AGM; Cilla is a member and it will be a nice captive audience!

New video footage from early yesterday morning of all three youngsters visiting the eyrie at the same time. No-one seemed too aggro (looking at you, Ophir!) and everyone seemed to be happy together once more. It’s turned foul today, with rain-bursts all day but with some clear days coming up we’re sure to see more aerial antics. Video clip can  be viewed here (4mins 40sec) …

Apologies for the quiet few days – we’ve only been getting fleeting visits from any one or more of the peregrines, whether it’s a youngster or two, or Swift sneaking around to sit on the microwave dish arm, out of sight of her youngsters. The most reasonable explanation of course would be that they’re all over in town buying us some big Christmas presents and hiding them in the trees. Various sightings of the youngsters at play have been noted and the campus guides, who have been showing next year’s prospective students around the place, have also been pointing out Orange campus’s most unique tourist attraction. Very frustrating without leg banding as we can’t positively identify the youngsters at any one point in time and we can only go on character traits (e.g. Ophir’s ratty moments, or quiet Byng!). Leg banding is being re-visited as a priority in 2012.

As a little Christmas present to all our viewers we can now make available a highlights page entitled “FCP Breeding Season 2011” (pdf format, 1.05MB, A3 size) giving a 1 page summary of this season’s activities; hard to pinpoint the best moments with about 80GB of raw records to choose from but we hope you enjoy Swift and Beau and the kids, all on one page!

It’s also been brought to our attention that there may well be another eyrie located in Orange itself, in a prominent park. We’re going to check this out as soon as we can , but if positively identified the question is then asked if it’s one of our previous young. Without banding we may never know, but it’s great that the Orange locals are becoming more aware of this amazing bird species.

Mischief in the eyrie