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 …