Sunday, May 4, 2008
Oberhausen: 36 days old
Those rascals pulled the stunt off again today. They grabbed the pigeon the female brought in. And now she had enough and left. And they still did not know what to do with it. All 3 where standing around the prey and no one thought of plucking. You have not been paying attention gang, when your parents wher edoing that. Prey always comes covered in feathers. Just watch S2 in the previous post, that's the way to do it. The female didn't came back for a long while to teach them. But they have to learn it the hard way. It is the only way.
Derby: 2 hatchlings
All day we have been watching the Derbycams. The first hatchling was born around noon and the second one around six. Two more eggs to go.
It is a great succes for the Derby Cathedral Peregrine Project. We are all so happy and it has been a beautiful sunday indeed. Watch all pics here:
http://falcoperegrinus-froona.blogspot.com/search/label/derby%20cathedral%20peregrineproject
Read all about the 2 hatches on the Derby Blog
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/
De Mortel
Another beautiful day in De Mortel comes to an end. We have seen so many great moments again. The sweetness of a peregrine falconmother with her eyases has never made such an impression on me as S2 does with her first 4 hatchlings. She is devoted to her 4 chicks. Watching her these past 14 days makes her behaviour from last year much more understandable. After killing the mother of 3 hatchlings she kept on grabbing their food away. She expressed courting behaviour, but the male just wanted to take care of his eyases. Finally after 3 weeks her motherinstinct slowly awoke. And she started to feed the 2 left chicklets. And cared for them as if they where her own. Seeing now how extremely devoted she is, I kind of understand how and why.
She is really an exeptional falcon this S2 of De Mortel.
It's great to watch her behaviour.
Rome: 25 days old
Look at these 2 big healthy chicks, Growing so fast and transforming in juveniles. They are flapping and stretching their wings frequently. The primaries and secondaries are growing and teh individual feathers are very well visible. On the brest little hunges of brown shine through the down as well as on their heads. The eldest is an assertive young lady. She grabs the prey as soon as her father brings it. He has a hard job getting it back. I haven't seen her pulling that trick on Aria her mother yet. She is an assertive young falcon and isn't very sweet to her younger sister either. I have seen other eyases being very sweet to eachother but this one is not. She's is a real raptor to be, she is.
Terminal Tower: 12 days old
SW and Buckeye are very busy feeding their eyases and they are doing a very good job. Look how they've grown. These 2 are very good and succesful parents. Many juveniles have fledged from the tower in th past years. Buckeye hatched in 1996 from the Rhodes Tower scrape Columbus Ohio and SW hatched from teh Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh in 1999. They are together ever since 2002, when SW dethroned and killed the resident female Zenith.
Sussex Heights Brighton
These four are very well taken care off, by 2 proud parents. They are fed very much. The male is coming in quite often with delicious bites of food. And feeds the chicklets. It differs a lot from scrape to scrape. There are where the male is not allowd to come to close to the chicklets. And other ones where the tasks are equally divided between the two parents. It must have to do with trust, and the time the two have been together. Very interesting to watch.
Zwolle: a warm day
Is was a warm and sunny day in the Netherlands. The sun was shining into the nestbox this afternoon. The female is keeping the eyases out of the sun, and then all of a sudden she went off. The poor things where in the sun, but crawled out into the shade.
Eyas can not stand sunshine when they are so very young, They are very sensitive to heatstress. This can even be deadly. Bird skin is very sensitive and not like ours at all. The skin is constantly covered by down and feathers. But eyases don't have that protection yet. The bird skin can not cool itself off because it has no sweatglands. So without the protective wings from a parent they will burn alive. And die from heatstroke. Unfortunately we saw that happen in Brisbane with one of the Frodo & Frida eyases last summer. So nestboxes which are placed by humans should never have the middaysun shining in unless it has corners where the eyases can shelter.
Zurich: wonderful eyas
The eyases in Zurich have discovered the live outside the scrape. I have seen them several times todays enjoying the sunshine.
De Mortel: 4 beautiful "kuikens"
We are so very proud of our 4 chicklets. They have turned into 4 beautiful "kuikens" as we call them. S2 is such a dedicated mother. The way she cuddles up with the 4 and cherishes them is moving. Her wings seem sometimes like loving arms around her 4 chicks.
Nijmegen: 13 days old
Great sunrise in Nijmegen everymorning to catch an early bird. Well that works 2 ways. The peregrines in Nijmgen catch the early bird for their hungry eyases. Who are turning into beautiful healthy chicklets. They are 13 days old, just like the Cobb Island ones.
Cocc Island: cuties
The Cobb eyases are 13 days old and they have reallu grown. With full crops constantly growing is easy.
Look at the eyas wandering off. Got a mind of her own, now has she. And has already started exploring. I saw exactly the same thing yesterday in De Mortel with an eyas the same age. They do this as soon as they are able too. Eager to grow up, eager to fly, do the things they where born to be.
Watching all these scrapes there are always those eyases, it is almost as if they are impatient. Can hardly wait for their body to be grown so they can take off, exploring the sky, diving and bombing pigeons. These eager ones are the born flyers, they take off and scream for joy when they do. They tumble and fall, gain height again just can't get enough.
Derby: first feeding
Here is a slideshow:
And the seperate pics:
Read the latest about the hatching at the DERBY scrape on the DERBYBLOG:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/
And the seperate pics:
Read the latest about the hatching at the DERBY scrape on the DERBYBLOG:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
