[Little Kopit]

Growth today.

Here I see this pic has from left to right Middle, Little, Big, going by amount of dark feathers.




One of these days I hope to see the size of the 'food item' the parent brings to the nest box. All 3 of those 'little ones' have big big appettites. Here is from left to right mother, Little, Big. Little already has a pretty full crop, but would like more.



& next is one of Big with the mother. Look at the size of that crop for the size of a 'little one'. I say Big because there are dark feathers coming in the middle of the wings.



Remember in 3 days we may know how many females and males. I think they should be able to pass that information on after the banding.

[Mrs. Mik]

Love the updates, Lynne! Please keep them coming! Amazing how fast they grow, isn't it!

[Little Kopit]

Thanks Julie, I can't go watch as much as I'd like.

& the updates are by the minute. What that means is, as the pic is taken, it's like any other camera. If the subject moves, the shot is blurry. With 3 or 4 subjects, this can be interesting. I took 2 screen captures last night and they are both blurry. & the view is small. What I'm posting is pretty much the size I see.

Tomorrow night, 6 pm my time, maybe before that I'll sit and play solitare or scrabble or hearts. That's when they've said the banding will take place and I'll do my best.

Of course, they could do the banding off screen, but Alcoa has mentioned a special tower. Would either party be so cruel as to put temptation our way and do all of this off camera. Nah, it's pretty clear Alcoa is spending part of its PR budget on the Peregrines.

This post has been edited by Little Kopit: 02 November 2009 - 10:39 AM

[Little Kopit]

Quote

Wednesday Novemer 4, 2009
Due to a forecast of high winds, the banding has been rescheduled until tomorrow (Thursday November 5, 2009) at 10am Australian EDST. Hopefully the weather will be kind as this will be our last opportunity to band our three chicks. Any longer and there will be an increased risk that the chicks may attempt flight when the researchers approach the nest box.

While I was hoping for this updated statement, I googled around. Eyases are supposed to have all of their flight feathers by 35 to 42 days old. & they will fledge between 39 days and 45 days. Some of these articles were for North American subspecies. Now, if the images I found for juvenile (ie immature, but fledged) Peregrine falcons hold true, they have to get some dark dark feathers to give them a speckled breast colouring. These are yesteaday.




Today one of the older ones' back feathers look almost complete. & the youngest one is starting to get long term breast feathers.

This post has been edited by Little Kopit: 03 November 2009 - 07:50 PM

[Little Kopit]

The banding won't happen, since the tower was involved in a vehicle accident. As the Aloca site said after this the eyases would fly. They said they expect them to be flying next week. It will be interesting to see if the youngest one takes a few additional days to fly.

Meanwhile, all have feathers growing very fast.




& here are the backs and wings from the middle of my night.

This post has been edited by Little Kopit: 05 November 2009 - 05:39 AM

[Little Kopit]

This is the age when I wish that site had full motion rather than the 1 minute updates. 6 pics that say something today. Yep, 6!!!!


Wingspread, though on the vertical. They don't get wing muscles unless the do wingercizes.



& the best one to see feather growth on "Little's" feathers. & for all that I think "Little" stands on her feet more, while Big and Mid rest on their elbows, I think "Little" is always looking like the biggest of the eyases. & with peregrine falcons it's the females who are biggies. We'll see what comes down on that from the site.





Now to a feeding sequence. I got a picture of the prey for today It's a bird.





The way they are all going at it, either they have all mastered 'feather removal' or they are very hungry.






But female parent is still best at creating bite sized pieces.



"Little" wants more.



They still have a lot to learn and maybe less than a week to get their own bites.

This post has been edited by Little Kopit: 06 November 2009 - 12:45 PM

[Mrs. Mik]

So are they not going to band them at all? Amazing how fast they're growing!

[Little Kopit]

A little bit of luck today. If I were trying to grab a screen capture of live action take off like this, I'd never do it.



If this nest were in a tree the eyas would be said to be branching. Prior to fledging the little birds need to learn how to use their feet and hold onto branches.



Again the question with Little is how soon after the older eyases will she fledge.




She has a roll model.

[Little Kopit]

Oh My 10 days since last post here.

Nov 8, afternoon, 1 of the brothers flew. Here there are still 3 home, nestlings. 2 are very active and I could tell it wouldn't be long.




Then there were only 2 (again Nov 8).




& the next morning, early, still 2 there:




But on next check Little, or she, was all alone.




& she didn't like it. Actually, I saw the female parent spend more time with her that first day. And after a day or so the now juvenile brothers would come back. Here is one from the 14th.




Hmm, I didn't edit in any of the brothers on top of nest or on rails close by. But on the 14th, I thought the younger female was almost ready to go.




But no, the last I checked, she's still at the nest She's only about a week younger than her brothers, but she still hasn't graduated that I've seen.

[Wallaby Dan]

They are so Beautiful!!! I think that is why i love the big birds. More of them please!!! Dan

[Mrs. Mik]

Ditto, Dan!

[Little Kopit]

This is about it. She fledged yesterday. All of the juvenile peregrines seem to be returning to the nest box during the day. By times the nest box becomes a place to get food. I've read that one thing they are supposed to be learning after they have fledged is to snag prey in the air. One of the parents will secure prey (usually on the wing) and then fly over juveniles. When the juvenile bird flips on his or her back the parent will drop the prey.

I don't think they migrate in Oz, but in North America the juveniles have learned to snag their own prey before they migrate in October and November.

Here is what I saw when I was first able to look yesterday.





Here are 3 peregines at the nest box. I don't know who's who. The one in the nest might even be a parent.





As I say, this might be the last post for this year. They may quit returning to the nest box after today.