Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Eyases from day to day
Click the pictures to enlargeCondition At Hatching
The peregrine falcon eyases are semialtricial, nidicolous; covered with off-white (prepenne) down. Semi altricial means: Covered with down, incapable of departing from the nest, and fed by the parents. In species like the peregrine falcon we speak of semi-altricial 2, hatch with the eyes closed.
The bill and feet pinkish to pale gray with eyes closed. They weigh about 35–40 g. If eyes open with food-begging first day, they are slitlike. The eyases obtain 2 downy plumages.
Growth and development
At 5 days after hatch, their mass has doubled. The eyas can sit with relative ease, and the open eyes are more round.
At 6–8 days of age the second down (mesoptile or preplumulae) starts to emerge, first on humeral and alar tracts but no down visible on belly at 6 day, although on the legs and belly at 8 days.
Also second down is well out on the wings and looks a bit blueish and sheaths of primaries breaking skin on wings.
By 10 days of age the second down is complete and uniform and outer rectrices are breaking skin. At 10 days, primaries growing at 2–3 mm/d, rectrix sheath not yet split.
At 14 days the second down is dense and long, rectrix sheath about 2 mm and typically ninth primary emerges from sheath.
By day 17 the contour feathers start to push out prepennae and only pale (buffy) tips of rectrices have emerged but growing at about 2 mm/d (since day 13).
By 10 days of age the second down is complete and uniform and outer rectrices are breaking skin. At 10 days, primaries growing at 2–3 mm/d, rectrix sheath not yet split.
At 14 days the second down is dense and long, rectrix sheath about 2 mm and typically ninth primary emerges from sheath.
By day 17 the contour feathers start to push out prepennae and only pale (buffy) tips of rectrices have emerged but growing at about 2 mm/d (since day 13).
At 20 days while still with heavy coat of second down, brown contour feathers are visible on margins of wings, tail, and faintly around the eyes.
By 30 days young appears about half down-covered and half feathered; while side of face well feathered, crown still covered with down.
At 35 days while mostly feathered, large conspicuous patches of down around legs, under wings, and on crown.
At 40 days almost fully feathered with traces of down on crown and under wings and outer several remiges; rectrices not fully grown but bird capable of weak flight.
From my Peregrine falcon website:
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Alcoa Anglesea
One of the eyases, probably the eldest one, went on exploration. She wandered to one of the corners of the nestbox. Sheila did not like that one little bit. She looked over her shoulder what the little one was doing,tried to pay no attention. Looked agian. Went over, but the little one staid put. She did not wanted to come back. Until Sheila lost her patience, went over and pushed the little one back to the babybunch. Very funny to watch!
They are growing so fast. They are 13 days old now. Second down is fully grown now, and the first primaries and tailfeathers are visible as a grey shadow. The primaries are growing 2-3 mm/day. The eyases will start to explore the nestbox and they do that on their tarsi. They cannot yet stand on their legs yet.
The Falco peregrinus macropus, th eaustralian peregrine falcon has very big feet compared to the northern peregrines. When you watch the pics look at Sheila, how big her feet are!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Rochester: new nestbox installed
On Friday Ocotber 10 the new nestbox has been installed on top of the Powers Building. The box is facing North slightly East. From the box Mariah and Kaver have a clear view on the River and the Kodak Tower.
The old one was facing slightly south. The DEC has choosen this position because of that clear view. More over, in the hot summer, the north facing will be more pleasant for the eyases, not having to cope with the burning hot sun.
The box was installed with a lot of people present. Even TV was there and the newspaper.
Joyce made a series of wonderful pics, watch them all here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=tq6stye.as7p9nja&x=0&y=ahrnq6&localeid=en_US
Kaver of Rochester: save and sound.
Kaver with his 2008 chicklets
On October 9 we became a message of Jess on the Rochester Board that they have been contacted by the DEC's Mike Allen, with news that he had recovered the body of an unbanded adult male Peregrine near the University of Rochester campus.
It was apparently in good condition, and they've asked Mike to send some pictures so that it could be attempetd to ID the tiercel.
Of course everybody was very afraid it would turn out to be Kaver. But since there are a lot of migrants passing through the area since the migration season has started, it could very well be a migrant. Watchers reported that Kaver was last seen in the area over the weekend, but a lack of a recent sightings could be pure coincidence.
So we were all anxious to know more.
Fortunately we got the good news from Jess yesterday that the dead tiercel is definitively not Kaver:
After reviewing the photographs that Carol took of the dead falcon, we
were fairly certain. There were just too many differences, especially
in the color and shading of the falcon's bill. But the breakthrough
came after some additional sleuthing by Carol, Mike Allen and Kathy O.
It turns out that the report of the dead falcon came into the
University's maintenance department at 4:57 PM on Saturday. Well, as
it turned out, Kathy observed Kaver and Mariah together on the chase
tower, where he stayed until 5:30! Proof positive came from Kathy's
cell phone camera. She took a picture of Mariah and Kaver, and sure
enough, the timestamp was 5:30PM. Just to be extra sure, Kathy took
another picture tonight to confirm that the timestamp was accurate.
You gotta love technology!
Thank goodness for that. Of course the dead of a falcon is a very very sad event, and I'm so sorry for this beautiful tiercel. May he fly high and soar free.
Our Kaver is still very alive and kicking and hopefully checking out the new nestbox on Powers Building!
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