Frodocam: lots of visits

Watch Frodocam here:

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/extras/frodocam/default.htm

De Mortel: update

All is well at De Mortel. That's the most important message. 2 Of the 4 juvs have left the Tower, and 2 are still around. Both are able to hunt for themselves and bring their catch back to the Tower. They mantle and defend their prey when S2 wants to join in for a bite: no way Mum.
Pa and S2 are returning to the scrape to renew their pairbond every now and then. The webcams are still transmitting and will be all winter!
You can watch the refresh on
http://www.evenementgemist.nl/mortel/

and live stream on
http://nl.justin.tv/demortel

Rochester: nestbox transition

Pics are courtesy of Jim Pisello


We all knew it would happen and on August 18 it did. The famous and legendary nestbox and the Kodak falconcams were removed.
The construction work on the Kodak Tower had already begun. Work that has to be done, because the building was starting to become dangerous.
It will take a long time before the work will be finished, so it was best to remove the nestbox now. So Mariah and Kaver can pick a new nursery before breedingseason 2009 begins.
The DEC and GVAS will install replacement nest boxes on nearby buildings in the next few weeks. The Kodak nestbox may even find a new home if it passes inspection by the DEC and is found to be a good match for another location. And Mariah's an adaptable, successful falcon without question. Of course there's no certainty with nature, but Jim Pisello remains optimistic that we'll be watching Mariah and Kaver raise their twelfth brood somewhere close by in 2009.

Jim Pisello who has been part of the Rochester Kodak Falcon cams team since 2003 played an important role in the transition. Read his report and watch the pics on his beautiful Blog.

http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/08/eleven-years-later-graceful-exit.html

Frodo cam: a lot of activity

A lot of activity today at the scrape. After days without a sign of a peregrine falcon, there they were: both of them. Making the bowl even deeper and Frieda checking things out.

Last year on August 18 Frieda started egglaying. This year the signs are it will be a bit later, maybe even in the last week of August. At the Alcoa nestsite it is the same. No sign of peregrines settling down yet. Last year Alcoa came right behind Brisbane with a first egg om August 21.
In 2006 the first Frodocamegg was laid in the first week of August. What is going on this year?

Well nothing serious really. No need to worrie. As we have seen during the breeding season on the Northern Hemisphere the first peregrine egg was laid on february 22 and the last one on march 27. Things can vary a lot. When we take a look at the difference in climate we see that Europe and the US/Canada have a temperate climate. But SEQ and Victoria as well have a mild subtropical climate. So we cannot compare both when we look at the egglaying date. Moreover Australia lies much closer to the equator than Europe or the US is. So breeding can commence much sooner or even much later when the nestsite is on a high altitude like in some National Parks. The higher the altitude the colder it gets. In Kosciuszko National Park peregrine falcons have their eyrie as high as 1600 mtrs. Egglaying starts there as late as October.
So breeding "Down Under" can start as soon as late July until even as late as the beginning of November. This is due to the totally different climate conditions.

The start of the reproductive season is always interdependent to increasing daylighttime, temperature and humidity. It seems to be rather cold this spring overthere for a mild subtropical climate. And of course wildlife responds. Not only the peregrines, but all birds show not a lot of obvious breeding activity either. So it is useless for our peregrines to start breeding if there will be no young birds to catch for the fledging juvs. Egglaying is after all interdependent to the breedingactivities of preyspecies as well, of course it is.

So things will be a bit later this year. No problem at all. We will just wait and watch the cams untill that special moment when the first egg appears.

Quest of Rochester in Quebec!

Great news from about Quest of Rochester. We all remember how this beautiful female eyas got a small transmitter on het back. Well this transmitter tells us now Quest is really on the move.





The transmitter is sending data. Now that Quest had not been seen for over 2 weeks now in Rochester it was a surprise that data from the transmitter placed her well north. She has been to the state of Maine and the transmitter places her now in Quebec Canada!





That is great news, because it means our beautiful girl is hunting on her own. The first year is a very hard and difficult one for juveniles but she sure has made a good start.





The Falcon Watch Blog on Imprints will keep track of Quest during her journeys. And of course I will post news about this so very special young falcon on her queste as well.


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

Frodocam: a visitor

One of the peregrines paid another visit to the nestsite. It is difficult to see what is happening, because the webcam gives us not a clear overview of the entire ledge. Maybe there are copluations on the ledge, or head-now-low somewhere in the scrape which we miss. We now only see a very small part indeed and that's a real pity.

No news yet of the Alcoa nestsite. I have written an email to Alcoa asking when they open up shop. When I know more I will post it of course. We are all eagerly awaiting the season start in Alcoa as well.

Hope Melbourne will consider webcams in their Peregrine nestsite! Would be great!