Thursday, June 12, 2008
Derby youngster in the air!
Just a few moments ago I received some great photo's made and sent by Colin Pass.
Colin tells me he managed a few shots of the Derby youngster this evening at 8. The juvenile "looking strong on the wing, just lacking in agility, but practise makes perfect"!
He sure looks quite confident of himself there high in the sky, our youngster! Great shots! Thank you so much Colin!
Photo's are courtesy of Colin Pass.
Please visit and enjoy his falcon website on:
http://www.falconquester.co.uk/
Derby Cathedral Peregrines
After a hectic and exciting day yesterday, today was a quiet one. Apparently the flight did not invite our youngsyer to try it again today. He stayed put in the nestbox. I really thought he would take off first thing this morning, but no. I got up real early to watch, but he was sleeping, and kept sleeping. So I put the pics on autocapture and went back to bed.
Nick Brown reports at 11:41:
At 8 am this morning the one youngster that was under the tray had flown off and landed on a roof opposite the front of the cathedral, ie round the opposite side from the nest. The falcon flew over it several times dangling prey and presumably encouraging it to get back on the tower. This it did and when I left it was perching happily it seemed right near the top of the tower on the south side.
Read all about the Peregrines on the Derby Blog, and don't forget to order your copy of the DVD!
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/
Harrisburg: fledging adventures
Well after Blue and Silver girl had fledged yesterday quite a lot has happened. Reenie who works at the Rachel Carson Building reports:
Silver had a flight this morning over toward the Fifth Street Garage, which is right beside the Carson Building. Sounded like she may have bumped into the side of it, but got herself collected, flew out, and is now safely back on the atrium where she was last night. Blue is still above the main entrance to the building, and has been trying to work her way up this solar panel that's on the top of that entrance. I know that panel has a pretty steep incline, and that might be hard for her. Blue also had some pigeons around her, but at this stage she wouldn't know what to do with them.
Next report:
Silver took off from the atrium roof toward the Chestnut Street Garage. They weren't sure were she went, but thought maybe on the roof of this little apartment building across the street. Blue is hiding behind the solar panel at the entrance to the Carson Building. Silver took off from the roof of the apartment building and is now on the ninth floor ledge of the Carson Building. That would mean she's six floors below the nest ledge, but gaining height on each flight. Maybe she'll make it back
Next update. Blue took off, not sure exaactly where she was headed, but she wound up ON 4th Street near a van that was parked. She was rescued, and was trying to break out of the rescue box. Silver took off, tried to land on the church steeple, missed, and now has flown somewhere inside the construction building next door. The watchers saw where she went in, and that section of the construction is being blocked off right now so that nobody can harm her or be harmed by her.
Next update Blue is inside the building right now, and seems to be OK. She's going to be released on the roof of the Carson Building sometime later this afternoon. Silver apparently got out of the construction building, and it is thought that she flew back over to the small apartment building across the street. Being on watch can be very difficult, for things can happen quickly.
Thank you so much Reenie for your updates and all the work you do for the falcons!
Photo courtesy of Reenie and Sueh
Postfledging
Postfledging
I received many questions about what happens after we have seen the juvies leave the nestsite.
Many of the nestsites we have been watching on this Blog are abandoned. The hatchlings have grown up to juveniles in around 42 days and have fledged. What we see is an empty nestsite.
What happens after the fledglings have left. Do they fly immediately like never did anything else. Do they stay with their parents or do they leave? Lot of questions on which some answers.
When the juvies are standing flapping and scuawking on the edge of the ledge and leave the ground for the very first time it does not mean they immediately fly like and eagle. In the contrary. For most of them it is complete panic. They flap their wings like crazy which is not the way to fly and are sinking to the ground like Icarus in de sun. Most of the maiden flights are crashflights. They end up on a rooftop, an edge of a building, in a tree or worse on the street with busy traffic. For many juvies the first flight is the last one and they end up dead. The bigcity nestsites with webcams fortunately have often a team of volunteers who watch the fledglings and help when necessary. Which is quite often.
With nestsites in National Parks there is often no help, but the dangers are much less of course. The feldgling could end up in a tree and will be helped and fed by the parents. They always watch over their chicks, wherever they are.
The problem is that the flight muscles are not yet strong enough to gain height on first flight. It takes a lot of strenght to overcome drag. And experience to take advantage of gravity and airflow, of wingload and the own airfoilform of body and wings. Sure they are born to fly, but just as we have to learn to walk, they do have to learn how to fly. One other matter is that the flightfeathers are not fully grown and still weak. They need to grow a bit nore and harden to be able to provide in perfect flying.
Most of the juvies progress from Butterfly-Flight (1–2 d after first flight) to Flutter-Glide (3–9 d) to Powered Flight (15–25 d). Butterfly-Flight appears to be a weaker form of Flutter-Glide associated with in-complete development of flight feathers and pectoral muscles. They love to pursuit the parents and beg for food which they accompany with loud Begging vocalization. During first 2 wk of flight, young birds’ pursuit of parents and eachother takes precedence over most other activities. Young will even pursue parents during territorial defense!
The juvies spent a lot of time practising stoop and preycatching flights on eachother. Siblings motivate eachother in pursuit in the air, under loud vocalizations, grabbing eachothers tails, turning in the air, trying to grab eachother with talons,having a lot of fun! It's a joy watching them. They just play like children, just as happy and innocent as our own young children.
As the juvies become more aggressive toward food-delivering parents, adults begin to drop both dead and live birds in air. Young dive and catch these items. Has been interpreted as parental training of young to hunt, but may also be a way for parents to avoid being mobbed by hungry young.
In migratory populations, dependency may continue until onset of migration 5–6 wk postfledging. Period of dependency is much longer in nonmigratory pop-ulations (9–10 wk postfledging).
During this time the juvies take off in the morning for long flights, coming back in the evening to spent the night at home. Sometimes stay away for 2 days. Until that special morning they leave their birthground and parents forever and start a life of their own. Quite often they leave together in pairs to spent the first weeks and months and even the first winter together. Or just go alone and perhaps meet another juvi from another nestsite to bond with. Even that is possible. The peregrine couple from the Dutch Zwolle nestiste where born just 35 km from eachother in Germany, and hatched almost the same day. They met when fledging and never left eachother anymore. This year they took over the Zwolle nestsite and had their very first clutch. Their first 3 juvies have just fledged, which makes the Circle of life round....
I received many questions about what happens after we have seen the juvies leave the nestsite.
Many of the nestsites we have been watching on this Blog are abandoned. The hatchlings have grown up to juveniles in around 42 days and have fledged. What we see is an empty nestsite.
What happens after the fledglings have left. Do they fly immediately like never did anything else. Do they stay with their parents or do they leave? Lot of questions on which some answers.
When the juvies are standing flapping and scuawking on the edge of the ledge and leave the ground for the very first time it does not mean they immediately fly like and eagle. In the contrary. For most of them it is complete panic. They flap their wings like crazy which is not the way to fly and are sinking to the ground like Icarus in de sun. Most of the maiden flights are crashflights. They end up on a rooftop, an edge of a building, in a tree or worse on the street with busy traffic. For many juvies the first flight is the last one and they end up dead. The bigcity nestsites with webcams fortunately have often a team of volunteers who watch the fledglings and help when necessary. Which is quite often.
With nestsites in National Parks there is often no help, but the dangers are much less of course. The feldgling could end up in a tree and will be helped and fed by the parents. They always watch over their chicks, wherever they are.
The problem is that the flight muscles are not yet strong enough to gain height on first flight. It takes a lot of strenght to overcome drag. And experience to take advantage of gravity and airflow, of wingload and the own airfoilform of body and wings. Sure they are born to fly, but just as we have to learn to walk, they do have to learn how to fly. One other matter is that the flightfeathers are not fully grown and still weak. They need to grow a bit nore and harden to be able to provide in perfect flying.
Most of the juvies progress from Butterfly-Flight (1–2 d after first flight) to Flutter-Glide (3–9 d) to Powered Flight (15–25 d). Butterfly-Flight appears to be a weaker form of Flutter-Glide associated with in-complete development of flight feathers and pectoral muscles. They love to pursuit the parents and beg for food which they accompany with loud Begging vocalization. During first 2 wk of flight, young birds’ pursuit of parents and eachother takes precedence over most other activities. Young will even pursue parents during territorial defense!
The juvies spent a lot of time practising stoop and preycatching flights on eachother. Siblings motivate eachother in pursuit in the air, under loud vocalizations, grabbing eachothers tails, turning in the air, trying to grab eachother with talons,having a lot of fun! It's a joy watching them. They just play like children, just as happy and innocent as our own young children.
As the juvies become more aggressive toward food-delivering parents, adults begin to drop both dead and live birds in air. Young dive and catch these items. Has been interpreted as parental training of young to hunt, but may also be a way for parents to avoid being mobbed by hungry young.
In migratory populations, dependency may continue until onset of migration 5–6 wk postfledging. Period of dependency is much longer in nonmigratory pop-ulations (9–10 wk postfledging).
During this time the juvies take off in the morning for long flights, coming back in the evening to spent the night at home. Sometimes stay away for 2 days. Until that special morning they leave their birthground and parents forever and start a life of their own. Quite often they leave together in pairs to spent the first weeks and months and even the first winter together. Or just go alone and perhaps meet another juvi from another nestsite to bond with. Even that is possible. The peregrine couple from the Dutch Zwolle nestiste where born just 35 km from eachother in Germany, and hatched almost the same day. They met when fledging and never left eachother anymore. This year they took over the Zwolle nestsite and had their very first clutch. Their first 3 juvies have just fledged, which makes the Circle of life round....
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