Derby by Colin Pass

The Derby youngsters at a food pass attempt. Photo's by Colin Pass























Last Sunday one of the adults had a little of territorial dispute with a passing buzard! Great pics by Colin Pass.

Thanks again Colin for sharing these beautiful photo's of the Derby peregrines!

To visit the website of Colin Pass go to Falconquester:

http://www.falconquester.co.uk/

Rochester: the day after

All five eyases/fledglings were accounted for amd are save. Seneca has made her leap into the playpen and I’m sure she will fledge sometime soon. Quest, Diamante and Zephyr are doing very well, especially Zephyr who is the guardian angel of this group. He checks on all his siblings to make sure they’re ok. Susan B is a little tentative about flying after her rescue yesterday. She was seen resting on a lower building just south of the Kodak Tower flapping her wings and running around. She looks well.





Zephyr has become his mom’s shadow, harrassing her every chance he gets. He even followed her out to the communication tower south of the Kodak Tower. He is a very fine flyer.

I want to give a special thank you to mr Jim Pisello who gave me permission to use some of his wonderful photo's of the Rochester youngsters for my main website and this Blog. I'm very grateful for that.
He writes great and often very amusing reports about the fledglings and illustrates them with his photo's. Please visit his website at
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/06/exciting-evening-for-girls.html

And check Imprints:
http://www.rfalconcam.com/falconwatch/

Derby today: pigeons: dead or alive

An early start. At 6:30 the tiercel entered the nestbox again, looked around at started once more to scrape bowles. He could just not get enough. Finally he laid down as if he was breeding. No falcon in sight.
he left and 2 kids came in. I still think these 2 are Tiddler and big sis. They where together in the nestbox before fledging performing the same affectious behaviour towards eachother as they do now. Touching bills, sharing food, flying together.
At 6:55 the falcon delivered prey on top and left.











Leaving the plucking to the kids. 3 of them attacked it and they managed just fine. 2 left and leaving the prey to the last one who dropped it. That has happened several times before!

The morning was well spend on preening in the sunshine. They've really adapted to the peregrine way of live: just take it easy!











Nothing much happened: a bit of flying, a bit of preening, a bit of sleeping












But then the big highlight of the day. On top of the Pud a big white bird was delivered. Not beheaded and I think it was still alive. One of the juvies, probably 004 got it first and started plucking, and beheaded the poor prey. He sure knows how to do it. Feathers everywhereand he needed no help from parents.
Much to his and my surprise a second fresh caught prey ( pigeon) was brought up I think by the falcon who had to catch her breath first. It was just minutes after the first white prey. No need for so much food, so she left with the prey and landed in the nestbox. There she started to pluck and eat.











On top the youngster was still eating and enjoying himself on the innerparts of the prey, and yes here we go again: manouvring the prey over the edge. They will never learn, now won't they.
After this lovely bloody meal all of a sudden in the middle of a lot of pigeonfeathers........ a pigeon landend!!!!! Being awfully suicidal indeed.
I didn't believe my eyes!
The youngsters looked at it with big brown raptor eyes, and the pigeon must have thought Oh my gosh think this is not the right place to be right now, I'd better get the hell out of here.
Amazing, just amazing!!!.

Read all about the Derby Peregrines on the Derby Blog:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/

And do visit the Derby Photo Blog of Jon Salloway. He has amazing photo's of the Derby peregrines.:
http://derby-peregrines.blogspot.com/

De Mortel

Ohio: First fledge... we think

From my observations yesterday and today I can only conclude there are only 3 juvies left on the ledge. Mystic is missing. That could mean she has fledged. There are no conformations yet of people who have seen her outside the nest. So we have to wait. Perhaps she succeeds in flying back. Both Scout and Orville will take care extremely well of their offspring.
We know from the fledgeteam in Rochester how both Mariah and Kaver are helping their kids with flying, landing and getting out of awkward situations. So we just have to wait untill observations come in to know how Mystic is.

Prove of fledging howevr could be the behaviour of the parents, They are trying to lure the 3 kids of the ledge into the air with prey. Leaving 3 very hungry screaming juvies on the ledge. But no fledging yet....

Nijmegen: still around

One of the juvies is still coming back to the nestbox. The other 2 every once in a while, but not that often anymore. Juveniles will leave th nestsites more and more until they stop coming back. They have to learn to take care of themselves as soon as possible. And they do. We know the Nijmegen 3 are Ok and came healthy through the first tricky days. So when they stop coming back we know they are alright and strating their own lives.

X Cell Alan King Plant: 31 days old

These 2 juvies are changing more and more. They are very sweet. In the redhaze of the morninglight they step out of the nestbox to enjoy the awakening of the earth. Looking eager into their future and wanting to fly away. Just 10 days more my sweeties and you may.....

XCell Black Dog

Oeps, all of a sudden human hands touching beautiful little eyases. Probably bandingday. Can't find any info on that but I will certainly get back to you about that! All eyases are accounted for.

Update: they have been banded indeed, so nothing to be worried about!