Rochester: a great day down town

All pics are courtesy of Jim Pisello

A great Fledge Watch day in Rochester. Jim Pisello reports that the 5 youngsters are still flying downtown and have not yet moved to the legendary Gorge High Falls. But they sure will some time soon. All 5 are well and healthy and are fine flyers. Z-man is the best, but the other ones are catching up fast.

Go to Peregrinations to read Jim's great report and watch the wonderful pictures.

http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/shunning-gorge-fledglings-keep-flying.html

And visit Imprints for more Fledge Watch reports

http://www.rfalconcam.com/falconwatch/

Derby Cathedral Peregrine Falcons

It's amazing how easy going peregrine falcons really are. With so much constructionwork going on nearby, they don't seem to care at all. Of course high up the Cathedral is their perch and it still is.
It's a pity the wonderful images are have these ugly crane's in the background now, but that's the way it is now,

The yungsters are still handsome, beautiful and terrific. They where perching all 3 of them high up, in front of the cam.











Both parents had a romantich early morning rendez-vous at the nestsite. Although I think the tiercel was more romantic than the female was. She stayed for a short while, left and landed a few secons later high up. The male stayed at the nest and enjoyed himself in scraping bowles. He stayed almost all morning at the nest.











The fresh pigeons that where brought in front of the pudcam where grabbed and pulled away from the pigeon delivery service very quickly indeed by one of the youngsters. They do manage themselves now.I actually believe they do fly away with prey items as well. They certainly are growing up fast indeed these 3 top-gun tiercels...
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Read all about the Derby Peregrines on the Derby Blog:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/

To visit the Derby Photo Blog of Jon Salloway, with amazing photo's of the Derby peregrines.:
http://derby-peregrines.blogspot.com/

De Mortel

De 4 De Mortel juvies are doing fine. They are becoming more and more independant. They leave for long flights together and stay away for some time, They fly with prey and are in full training to be able to bring a heavy prey all the way up to the first ring. Talon tagg, prey transfer and childplay are things that the fledgewatchers can see daily.
One of them is mr Ton Kuipers who makes wonderful pics and videoclips. The photo+s of this post are all courtesy of Ton Kuipers.
Visit his website for many more photo´s and videoclips on:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kuiperst/

Florence

From Italy I received these beautiful pics of the Florence juvies. They hatched on April 21 and fledged on June 1. They have not been banded, because it was to complex to get acces to the nest.
It sure is a wonderful nestsite!!

Eemsmond: eggs removed.

On March 12 the Eemsmond female laid her first egg. On March 15, 17 and 19 she laid the eggs 2, 3 and 4. She started breeding after she had laid the 3th egg. The first days of breeding where in cold and snowy wheather. But they where sheltered by a warm nestbox. 33 days after she started breeding the first egg should have hatched, that was around April 20. Everywhere in the Netherlands eggs hatched around that date, but not in Eemsmond.
First we thought, give her a few days more, but still no hatch.





If eggs don't hatch within 5-7 days after the estimated date they won't anymore.
In these cases, the couple goes on breeding. From other cases I know they leave after 40-45 days to try again somewhere else. Or just stop breeding and leave.
But not this Eemsmondcouple. They kept on breeding. And they did not seem to be bothered by the fact that something was not the way it should be. They had adjusted to this way of life, and where taking turns breeding day in and day out.





Many people have mailed me about this in the past months. How sad and pity these birds. Have asked to intervene. But please do not project your own psyche and emotions on these birds. The Peregrine falcon is one of the most intelligent birds there are. But they lack the ability to think ahead, to draw conclusions, to be aware of this being sad.
The drama in Richmond for instance was a total different thing. She saw how her eyases died, where sick, where dead in the shell. She was very very aware of the death of her eyases. And that is most stressful thing that can happen to a peregrine falcon. Broken eggs, death eyases are very disturbing and do evoke a behavioural reaction that we could almost qualify as emotions. Just recall the Richmond female. Her behaviour has made a big impression on me. It was very emotional to see her stress and greeve about what was happening with her precious eggs and eyases.




But the Eemsmond couple where not stressed one moment. They just behaved as they should when there are eggs. They seem totally relaxed.
The breeding went on and on and on. Until yesterday. The eggs where removed by the Dutch Peregrine Workgroup and will be available for scientific research.
The Eemsmond couple have broken records for sure. I have never red anywhere that a couple kept breeding for this long. It has actually been 106 days!!!

X- Cell Black Dog

Nijmegen

It keeps on being fun watching this nestsite. All juvies and both parents consider the nestbox as their home. And visit the nestbox many times a day.
When I'm off to work in teh morning, there is always one one the peregrines sitting on the grate in teh early morning sunshine. A wonderful way to start the day indeed!

Xcell Allen S. King Plant

I think one of the juvies has fledged. Have not seen both juvies once in the past 24 hours. Just obe left on the ledge. In fact the second one could have gone as well this morning. The female was on the ledge for some time. Often that's a sign that the youngsters have taken off. We just have to wait and see.