Rochester

Oberhausen: wandering about

The german Eyases where banded today. Later on in this chapter a slideshow!
And right after the banding all of a sudden the eldest one first stepped out of the nestbox. As if she finally got the courage to do so. And what a pretty thing she is. Watch how her face is turning brown bit by bit, and those beautiful flight feathers growing.
I do not yet know if we have females or males overhere. As soon as I have this info I will let you know.

Terminal Tower Cleveland

De Mortel: first hatch

Early this morning the first eyas of S2 and Pa of De Mortel hatched and a few hours later at 13:30 the second one.
Tomorrow on April 22 we will remember Ma of De Mortel who was killed one year ago by S2.
At that moment in time she had 3 eyases who where just one week old.
It was a very horrible time that followed the death of Ma. S2 , a young female born in 2005 performed courtship behaviour and therefore took all the prey Pa brought to his eyases.
The youngest one died. It took S2 3 weeks before she learned and had a huge change of heart. On Mothersday she started feeding the 2 eyases. Hope and Faith we called them.
Thanks to the love and care of S2 those 2 juvi's fledged healthy and savely.

This winter S2 and Pa stayed together at the tower in De Mortel.
We where excited when they started courtship behaviour in february and thrilled when she layed her first egg ever. Her first clutch is of four eggs. And today the first 2 hatched.
It is a happy day now that there are eyases again in the nestbox all the way up in the 130 mtr high Alticom Tower in de Mortel.
I want to thank InterNL and Alticom who are our new sponsors!

James River Bridge

These wonderful three eyases are 12 days old and growing fast. Very well visible it the development of the anatomy of the wing. At the first days the wings where more like arms with very large hands. But now one can see very well how the pagatium is growing. This is the piece of skin between the shoulder and the wrist. It is a very important part of the wing. The front edge of the pagatium is formed by the patagial tendon which is very susceptible to injury. For instance when a bird flies into a wire this tendon is likely to be severely damaged. Tendons do not heal easily, and that means that the bird may never be able to fly again.

The pagatium is an evolutionary asset, and a major part of the arm to wing eveolution. Wings evolved over many, many millions of years. Scientists have extensively studied the wings of modern-day birds and have identified many important anatomical details. Especially important are those not found on the "arms" of non-birds. Major efforts have gone into finding early occurrences of such details in the fossil record, but unfortunately it is far from complete. Wings generally have thin, hollow bones that do not fossilize well and it appears that few of the animals that had them died in environments suitable for fossilization. The lack of fossils makes it difficult to establish the time that each feature first appeared. The times listed below are documented, but do not reflect an even progression from one step of deveopment to the next.

Rome: clever eyases

Heidelberg: so sweet

One week old are these two little babies. They are not so tiny as the photo's do suggest. Compare these with the James River Bridge eyases when they where one week old. And you have an idea, or just take a look at the Eyases from day to day phototable on this site.

Richmond: waiting

Oberhausen: tasty meal

Florence Italy: first hatch

Congratulations Italy . We have a first hatch in Florence.

Zwolle

De Mortel: first and second hatch

Nijmegen: no hatch yet

Although the April 21 seem to be the right hatchday the proces is very likely being influenced by the territorial dispute off 2 weeks ago.
The eggs where left unprotected for quite a while. One even got so damaged that is broke a few days later. So we just have to wait and see.

James River Bridge

These 3 little darlings are 12 days old now. And watch them transforming. It is an amazing and wonderful proces.
And watch Sir James, their old father being devoted to his babies. Sir james is 17 years old and that is very old-aged for a peregrine falcon living in the wild. But he is looking fine. And taking care of his partner Elizabeth and his eyases.
Love these 3 darlings. It's a great adventure to watch the peregrines court and lay eggs, and see the eggs hatch and watch the eyases turn into juveniles. It is again this amazing miracle of life, it's magical.

Cobb Island

Oberhausen: bandingday!

When eyases are about 3 weeks old they are banded. And today that was the event for these 3 German Peregrine Eyases. And what an excitement it was! Both the male and teh female where quite agressive as you can see on the pictures. And worried and did not understand where their screaming babies went to. And they must have been making a lot of noise! It took about and hour and then we could see the first one being put back in the box.

The parents did not trust it one little bit and stayed close to their returned babies. Who all three have jewelry on now.

Banding is a universal and indispensable technique for studying the movement, survival and behavior of the peregrine falcon.

Derby

Hatchtable

Today first hatch in De Mortel Netherlands and Florence Italy