Rochester Kodak Peregrines

And then the heavy rain came down with the wind blowing it into the nestbox. The eyases where wet al over, look at them. A gosh. Their faces speak for themselves. After the rain was gone they started preening of course and where dried up very fast! Just intime for dinner brought by Mariah: fresh pigeon.

Derby Cathedral Peregrines

No that we can have a look what's happening up the Cathedral Tower I have a made a slideshow of the juvie who was with the female who brought in prey upthere. He was so eager to get it and thought he could indeed pluck it, the female left it to him and flew off. Have it your way. I'm sure she must have watched him from a point we can not see. He tried it very raptorial, and at some point even stood on top of the poor headless bird, but he did not manage to get it's feathers off. And then caused by all the fuzzing around the prey to fell down the tower. Ahhhh. He just looked down ver disappointed. And then started preening and finally he laid down and fell asleep in the sun. A sweet little babybird he still his, has a lot of learning to do.



And then around 13:10 the two nestlings got a visit from their big brother 004. And from that moment there was action in the nestbox, like some kind of a hurricane this one was hopflapping on the edge. Finally the three juvies took an afternoon nap together and off he was again.









A somewhat quiet day at Derby. The 2 in the nestbox did hardly engage in any action , but had a lazy day. And why not. They are not ready yet to fledge. From the start the 4th eyas was left a little behind comparing to the other ones. It is interesting to notice that in these 4 hatchlings there has been a hierachy in which the 4th eyas was indeed the last one. Even in feeding. First I thought the female was giving him food when all the others have eaten to give him a bit more, but hat was not the case. The fourth eyas stayed behind out of him self. He still does. Not wanting or daring to stand upfront when food arrives, no he did a step back and waited his turn. I have seen many times him getting no food at all because everything was gone. Many times I saw how he then started nibbling the toes of his parents which is a begging gesture. But parents do not answer to this behaviour when they have just been feeding. And flew off leaving him with an empty stomach. Being born days after the first one and not getting the amount of food the others did makes him being a bit behind. But never mind.
Still he is a grown up juvie now but it takes him a bit longer to reach the fledging point. When you watch closely you will see he still lets the other juvie go first when Dad or Mum arrives with food. I'm sure he will change this behaviour very soon in that of a raptor: excuse me, get out of my way, I'm first thank you! He has to !

http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/

De Mortel

A great day at De Mortel with lot of action from the juvies. They keep practising dive-bombing on eachother with phenomenal airial display. They would like so much to take over the prey Dad or S2 brings to the Tower but they do not want that yet.
Ton Kuipers who makes great video's of the Peregrines at the Tower made some awesome photo's of one of the juvies today!

Be sure to visit his website everyday to watch the new pics and video's of De Mortel at:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kuiperst/








These videoclips are made by Lambert Cox who makes awesome video's as well from the peregrines on a daily basis.
Visit his website at:

http://www.slechtvalkendemortel.nl






And some shots from the webcams today, showing Pa in the nestbox preening:

Banding Falcons in Providence, RI

I received these 2 great video's, which I want to share with all my readers.






Video by Ripfilms

Columbus Ohio

Xcell Allen S. King Plant,

New Yersey

Update on the two New Yersey fledglings.
After a very difficult start in which 2 of the 4 hatchlings died, one was brought to the Raptor Trust. http://www.theraptortrust.org/
This one did survive and was brought back to teh nestsite to join his sibling. Both grew up without any problems, where banded and fledged on June 12.

But not without any problems. By mid-afternoon it was determined why only one bird was observed - a Jersey City Animal Control officer retrieved one of the fledglings at the Montgomery St. parking garage and it was transported again to The Raptor Trust. Whereas a difficult early flight resulting in a stunned bird on the ground could be fatal for a truly wild bird, these urban birds have many people looking out for them. The report from The Raptor Trust on the fledgling found on Montgomery St. is that there is no apparent injury or health problem at this time. The bird will be moved into a flight cage and observed, and if all is well will be returned to Jersey City on Monday.

It ain't easy being an urban peregrine juvie.

Nijmegen

Black Dog: 14 days old