Heidelberg, Germany Peregrines

[AlisonL]

The resident male at this nest is Perkeo, and the resident female is Palatina.

Perkeo visited the nest yesterday, and found a huge scrape. I think this looks like a scrape made by an Egyptian Goose; apparently there is an ongoing attempt to keep the geese from using the peregrines' nest.







Today I did not see either bird, but someone had filled in the scrape.

http://www.ag-wanderfalken.de/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=79

[Donna]

That's a huge scrape!! Oh those Geese!! My favorite though. 

[AlisonL]

Palatina and Perkeo are incubating four eggs; all four were visible briefly this morning.



Perkeo returned to continue incubating:

[Penelope99]

The hole is little now! 

[AlisonL]

Congratulations to Palatina and Perkeo on their first egg of 2017! Palatina laid the egg some time during the night.

The egg is covered at the moment:



http://www.ag-wanderfalken.de/webcam1/

[Carol P.]

 

[MAK]

 

[AlisonL]

The egg this morning:

[MAK]

Nests don't come any more well protected than this one eh!? 

[Annette]

Nests don't come any more well protected than this one eh!? 

Nests or geese?

[AlisonL]

A new tiercel at the Heidelberg nest

After eight years as the resident male, it would appear that Perkeo has been replaced by a new male. Some time in November, it was realized that the male appeared to be different. Perkeo is unbanded, as is the new male, which made it more difficult to be sure that this was a new bird.

The new male has been coming into the nest late in the day or during the evening, and sometimes spends the night in the nest box. He has also been bringing food gifts to Palatina, which so far she has declined. I had seen a peregrine in the nest a few times in November as darkness closed in, but the bird was really only visible as a dark shape.

Palatina and Perkeo had a very successful breeding season this year, raising four beautiful chicks. Perkeo has been a wonderful mate for Palatina, and a great father to their chicks, and I am very sad to see him gone. 

The new tiercel has now been named Zephyr. He has a very full crop (almost heart shaped) in the pic below.

[AlisonL]

A couple of earlier pics I had saved of the new male:





And Cam 1 has just been replaced with a new cam which also has sound. The image quality is much improved.

[AlisonL]

Zephyr, I think, in to check the new cam:



http://www.ag-wanderfalken.de/webcam1/

[MAK]