Sunday, October 5, 2008

Quests travels


Photo: Ian Davies


Photo: Ian Davies




Photo: Ian Davies






Just in time for the end of summer, it looked like Quest may be ready to do some more wandering. She began in Chatham Port where we last left her, but on the 19th she said good-by to the Cape and winged her way nearly 300 miles (483 km) to Washington, New Jersey, near the Pennsylvania border! For a Peregrine at normal cruising speed of about 50 mph/80 kph, that’s a good six hours of solid flying. Prevailing weather patterns during that time indicate that she’d have had a nice tailwind for much of the trip, as she flew out just behind a cold front.

But she wasn’t done stretching her wings. The next two days found her seaside again, but this time on Shelter Island, one of the small islands on the eastern edge of Long Island, New York. Then it was back to the Cape on the 22nd, where her transmitter puts her in the vicinity of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, just off the coast from Chatham. It’s a stopping point for migrating birds, and it’s not far from where she started on the 18th. So not only is Quest proving to be a great distance flyer, she’s a hotshot navigator as well!



September 30:
Quest has returned to her summering spot in the southeast corner of Massachusetts. She began where we left her at Chatham Port, after her brief trip into New Jersey and Long Island last week. During our most recent tracking period, Quest stayed within a fairly small area, venturing no more than 10 miles (16 km) or so on any single day.

Read more on Imprints:

http://rfalconcam.com/imprints/

Alcoa Anglesea: 2 eyases























2 Beautiful very lively and eager customers ate the Alcoa Anglesea nestsite. They do keep Mom awake no doubt. Both are being fed every 2 hours and they do seem to be very hungry indeed. We can see the begging posture and the both get their share. Yesterday it appeared as though all 3 eggs hatched, but today it turned out there is still a unhatched egg. It should hatch within 48 hours after the first one. Unfortunately the webcam broke down during the early afternoon, so no actual reports from that moment on.

Frodocam: different nestsite












On September 22 Frodocam reported that Frodo and Frieda were very active around a building close to Admiralty Towers. The initial report suggested that they are defending the top of this building.
In the meantime by october 2nd they have been seen around the two tallest buildings in Brisbane – Aurora Tower and Riparian Plaza. Aurora seems to be a vantage point and roost rather than a nest site, so Riparian may be the new site. It is difficult to confirm at the moment. Both are close to Admiralty Towers.
This is not good news for the watchers of Frodocam. But we do hope Frieda and Frodo will start nesting and produce offspring this season.
Yesterday one of them paid a short visit to the Frodocamsite.