After weeks of nice weather, the rain started falling today. And our Fab Four where getting wet all over. Ahh gosh, look at them. They didn't like it one little bit. The female did stay with them for a while but the rain was not that hard, so she left.
When they are older and have their juvenile plumage, rain in no problem at all. They preen their feathers with this very special oil from the preengland just above the tail. This is a kind of balm for the feathers and makes the plumage waterproof. This oil is very special, it contains as well some kind of provitamine D, which transforms into Vitamine D by the UV light from teh sun. When the peregrine is preening he/she zips the barbs of the feathers with it's beak and digests at the same time the oil from the feathers which has been processed by the sun.
The chicks will be ringed this week. Then we will know if we indeed have 3 ladies and one little guy.
Read about that on the Derby Pages:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/
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