Feeding activity in eyrie this morningPosted on 11-01-2012
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.
http://youtu.be/FOY8XGGMs0gQuiet time together
An article from across the waterPosted on 16-01-2012
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.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/6252931/Fast-life-for-little-predatorTraining with an edgePosted on 17-01-2012
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!
Severe lightning storms strikes OrangePosted on 19-01-2012
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!
New video footage, courtesy of BeauPosted on 19-01-2012
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.
http://youtu.be/9yU1MqmUZUshttp://youtu.be/S9lleQISbtISiblings together once more
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A very interesting article about this peregrine!
Thank you for this!
First Callidora now Sabrina/Valiant 
I hope she can fly again!
