It seems our pair are really cementing their bond. I’ve noticed that Diamond has been paying a bit more attention and is bowing really low to Xavier (who is always far more attentive). And their courtship displays have been more frequent (whereas the scrape preparation has dropped off, although not entirely).
Here Xavier arrives just on sunset.
And here is Diamond crouching really low (or is the unusual camera angle).
And a little movie.
MF Interaction Diamond low pose
Despite much searching, no sightings of the juveniles. However, whilst Xavier has spent much of the time in the box, Diamond has been out and about most of the day. Perhaps she has been doing most of the training. Who knows. A bit frustrating!
Anyway, it’s January and I am heading off up to Bellingen (north coast hinterland, NSW) tomorrow, coming back on 15th. 5 days of guitar playing, bird watching in the rainforest and swimming in the Bellingen River and perhaps in the ocean, seems a good idea to me.
I’ll have access to this website, but not to my software, so hopefully Scott and Arjen will be around…and I’ll catch up as soon as I can when I get back.
Thanks so much for all your support and comments this breeding season. I’ll catch you later in the month.
We had a major storm last night. it went on and on, lightning all around for what seemed like an hour – quite a light show. Amazingly we didn’t lose power, either at home or work, but the storm seems to have damaged my internet wireless received at home (which is only 4 km as the crow flies from the uni).
Meanwhile… Diamond snoozed on oblivious, despite the campus being lit up as if at noon. And very heavy rain for an hour or so.
VIDEO 20161224 Xmas Eve lightning
Spare a thought for Xavier and the babies. There is supposed to be more today, but we seemed to have been spared the worst of it. Xavier has been in and out of the box all day, so none the worse for this.
While sorting through previous years’ notebooks to find a suitably tidy set of entries to send to Chris and Sue, I looked up last year’s post-fledging sightings around the box and found that there was a certain similarity up until mid-December.
The fledglings were Tumbler, Walga (females) and Tardy (male, always last to do anything, but actually first to leave). They fledged mid-November (16-18th, days 39-41). The pattern was similar to last year, after a week or so of chaos and missing birds, all 3 juveniles assembled in the ‘park’ opposite the roost with the parents by 25th November. After a week or so they then moved to the large dead tree on the farm, a few hundred metres away (the same one as this year). The birds were seen frequently in and around the campus. On 15th December juvenile female arrived in the box on 15th December and stayed for a few hours.
Both male and female restarted to prepare the scrape in December, although not with much vigour. Prey was occasionally stashed in the box.
On 5th January, a juvenile tried to land in the box, but Diamond chased it off. And you might be interested to know that I was still getting records of juvenile flypasts (once or twice weekly) until 13th February. The adult would pursue it, or vice versa.
In previous years I’ve also noticed that juveniles are here for 6-8 weeks after fledging, so, it is disappointing to have so few sightings of our trio this year. I’ve looked for them almost daily without any luck after such a short post-fledging period (3-4 weeks) and my spies around campus have also come up with nothing. There was a rainstorm the night before they ‘disappeared’ but I really don’t think that would have been a major problem (and not for all three at once). Anyway, I haven’t given up on finding them and will let you know as soon as do. But I’ll be away 5-15 Jan, so there’ll be fewer updates from now on.
Anyway, our couple live on doing all the normal peregrine couple things, with little prey coming into the box now, although both arrive with red tootsies or chest, obvious signs of recent kills.
Sometimes Diamond has been absent at night, or arrived very late (eg at one in the morning) and last night at 9.30 pm, suggesting gently to Xavier that he vacates the premises. They must be able to see and fly well in the pitch dark. I’ve read that they occasionally hunt at night, but I don’t have any evidence of that with our birds.
20161222 night swap
All the best for Christmas and the New Year and thanks for all your very interesting comments over the breeding season.
Apologies for lack of updates. I’ve had a busy week & week-end and am still trying to catch up and should be able to do a summary on Friday (have to go to Dubbo tomorrow to try and prevent reductions to the environmental flows of our main river, Murray Darling).
I’ve looked every day for youngsters without success, but I’m confident they are doing fine, just difficult to find! Some storms and rain showers are forecast for the next few days.
16:05 Cilla Kinross cleans the box and puts new stones in.
19:34 Xavier on the ledge, Diamond flies by.
19:51 Xavier leaves and returns.
19:53 Xavier leaves.
20:08 Diamond arrives.
On Friday evening I found a lone juvenile (probably Vim) on their dead tree; no sign of the others.
Juvenile snoozing in late afternoon sun
Nearby was a pair of Australian (=Nankeen) Kestrels, so I amused myself trying to photograph them (no sign of juveniles, alas)
Cheeky kestrels hunting near peregrine roost tree
I also got better photo of the yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora) one of Australia’s most beautiful trees (in my mind, at least) and excellent honey trees.
yellow box near roost tree
I haven’t had a chance to get back out there until today, but couldn’t find any trace of them, although Xavier is visiting regularly to the box and Diamond is there overnight. And there are occasions when they get together. Here Xavier is preparing a scrape (which is gone now as I cleaned the box today, so he might get a bit of surprise when he gets back).
Xavier getting ready for next year (a bit early!)
I’ll go out again this evening and see if I can find them. I don’t think they will have gone yet. Juveniles are usually around for a month at least. I think they have just moved to another tree, perhaps a bit further away. Diamond is away all day, so appears to be much of the supervision.
I’ll also go back up and do a better job of cleaning the cameras!
7:02 Xavier arrives.
7:18 Xavier goes into to box.
7:20 A large bird flies by, Xavier returns to the ledge.
7:22 Xavier goes into to box.
7:29 Xavier leaves and returns.
He takes the box in his possession.
8:57 Xavier leaves.
At sunset tonight, I found all three juveniles in their usual area, looking sleek and well fed, with evidence of a recent galah kill on a rock near the dead tree. Here are our sisters Mell and Rubi on the same branch, after I disturbed one of them on the prey (nothing much left but feathers).
And here is Vim, the little brother, for once on a lower branch.
Vim at sunset
And looking right at me
And Diamond circling above me, ensuring I mean no harm
Interestingly there were starlings, mapgpies and willie wagtails in the same dead tree, with the willies giving Mell a hard time when she moved into a different tree for a while. I’ve never seen magpies or willies on the menu, but the starlings should watch out!
I’ve got to organise two year final parties this weekend and early next week (one musical, one landcare), so might leave them to it for a few days. Obviously, they don’t need our help any more.
After being conspicuous by their absence during CSU Green’s ‘inspection’ today, I found our family back in their dead tree this evening. I had to walk down as I didn’t have the 4WD and I was very conscious of a very cross Diamond who followed me down, so I didn’t go too close (hence not that great photos).
Nice to see Vim having a meal of his own; in fact, he took it to his sister and shared it.
Vim with prey
Vim calling
Vim sharing with his sister (Mell?)
And here is the other sister (Rubi?) looking very aloof, a little higher in the tree.
Rubi perhaps, looking very cool and aloof
And a couple of landscape shots, showing the tower and a yellow box tree near the dead roost tree (Eucalyptus melliodora after which Mell was named)
Diamond and Xavier on the tower have an amazing view of the landscape. After a fruitless search of the park below the water tower, I wondered if they had decamped to the group of trees the trio last year used, and I was right! So quite a few hundred metres away, but still under paternal gaze.
Three blobs in a tree. Vim higher up as usual
And a bit closer
Mell and Rubi, close sisters
Vim in his superior position
And I thought you might want to see what THEY see. You can just see the top of the tower over the trees.
View back to the trees and the tower
This is actually a better spot for the youngsters to learn to fly and hunt as there is less chance of accidents due to the open nature of the paddock. There are a few other trees around (live), but it’s grazing country mainly….and this is where their main prey lives.
The box has been partially empty this morning, although Xavier has been dashing in and out, at one time bringing food. He sat and waited for nearly half an hour before giving up and leaving with the grisly lump.
Yesterday afternoon I spent some time searching for the youngsters, my every move watched carefully Diamond
Diamond keeping a wary eye on me
I found both our young females cruising through the woods, seeming quite at home with short, but competent flights. At one time a couple of red wattle birds (large honeyeaters) landed nearby, but she obviously doesn’t recognise them as food as yet. We also noticed a galah wing under the youngster’s roost area, but couldn’t find much else in the very long grass.
Young female, catching the wind
Other female, Rubi ?? whining
No sign of Vim yesterday, but Tiffany saw a youngster trying to land on the concrete slope just below the top of the tower this morning, so that could well have been him.
We went out and had a look just now (3 pm local time), but there was no sign of anyone, so we wondered if they had gone on a family outing, Hunting 101, perhaps. First lesson: your food is alive, bird-shaped and on the wing, not provided by Mum for much longer.
