Netherlands / De Mortel - 2016-19

[dupre501]

These three are growing rapidly, and the nest is super disgusting.

[dupre501]

Three chicks here, well fed.

[carly]

Other peregrines have come to investigate, but have quickly been driven away. There have been no mentions of fights.

Now they have a third egg!

That is good news!  Thank you for that 

[dupre501]

Other peregrines have come to investigate, but have quickly been driven away. There have been no mentions of fights.

Now they have a third egg!

[carly]

They have two eggs here.

Things are better this year then?  No intruders and battles as in years past?

[dupre501]

They have two eggs here.

[dupre501]

The peregrine cams are live once again on the Beleef de Lente site.

https://www.vogelbescherming.nl/beleefdelente/slechtvalk

[MayShowers]

Such sad news RIP Miep-VieVie 

[Alison]

The female who killed Miep turned out to be banded 7/C. This makes her a granddaughter of Ma and Pa. She was born in Ittervoort in 2014. Her father is R/4, a son of Ma and Pa, born in 2006.

Before the loss of Miep, I had been watching her as she spent most nights in the nest, looking as if she was preparing to lay her first egg. A necropsy has confirmed that she was indeed about to lay an egg. 

I miss seeing her sweet and beautiful face at the nest. 

There have been more battles since, and I think 7/C was displaced by an unbanded female. The most recent birds I had seen at the nest were both unbanded.

Now, there is an egg in the nest. It is difficult to know who the parents are.

[Alison]

There is very sad news from De Mortel this evening. Miep-VieVie was killed in a territorial battle today by an intruder female. 

There were four peregrines flying around the tower today. In addition to Miep-VieVie, there was an intruder female with an orange band with the letters YC, and another intruder female who is probably the female from a church in nearby Bakel. And then there was Spikkel-VM, who basically stayed in the nest out of the way. There may also be an unbanded intruder male in the area.

The loss of Miep

From Martin Vink this evening, a very sad update, which I translated from the Dutch.

Fight settled?

Martin Vink, Vogelwerkgroep Gemert | Monday, March 12, 2018

In the past two days, an invasion of strange falcons around the De Mortel tower has been observed. These intruders attempt to dislodge or even kill the current male and female. What has happened so far?

The current female V and the male M are already well advanced in their courtship; many copulations have been observed and the female is almost ready to begin laying eggs. She was more and more often seen in the nest box for a longer period of time. However, on Sunday 11 March, several peregrine falcons appeared on the battlefield and late in the afternoon Karin Groen-Dam filmed an attack/battle between two peregrine falcons. For the images, see this link:

https://youtu.be/oPX60CMYarM

As can be seen on these images, both peregrine falcons were locked together and both fell down at the back of the tower.

From this moment on, the current female V, as far as my information goes, was no longer observed in and around the nest box. Given the strength of the attack, it is plausible that the peregrine falcon who was attacked was almost immediately killed by the intruder.

Peregrine falcons are true birds of impact; they surprise their prey by attacking them with great force. During the impact, there is so much energy transfer that it breaks the spine and the prey becomes defenseless.

They frequently attack by biting the prey/competitor in the neck, causing the neck vertebrae to break and death to occur.

But was the peregrine falcon who was attacked the current female V?

Today a strange banded female was seen several times in and around the nest box. This female has a silver-gray leg ring and a colored orange leg ring with possibly the combination YC.

Orange leg rings were used for Dutch birds until 2014. Since 2014, we use gray with three letter combinations. On the roof camera the ring code YC was clearly visible with some certainty. With this shot we also looked from above on the fourth ring for a dead/wounded peregrine falcon. As we already expected, we found a dead peregrine falcon. After zooming in, the falcon appeared to have no bands; could it be the current female V?

In order not to disturb the falcons, tonight, I carefully went up to the fourth ring after 20:00 and removed the dead falcon. The female falcon whom I found had a lot of injuries to her neck, indicating the completion of the lethal attack by the intruder. My suspicion that this is the current female V, I can confirm with some certainty despite the injuries and affected plumage.

Given the position of the attack and the location, it is plausible that the falcon who was attacked in the film is the same falcon.

What now?

As previous territorial battles in the breeding season have shown, a small chance remains that a brood can still be raised. The male M will then have to enter into a pair bond with a new female, which in view of the number of peregrine falcons around the tower and the corresponding disruptions, is still possible in the coming weeks. It is even possible that the current male M himself will also be chased/killed because a strange unbanded male has also been observed.

[Alison]

Miep-VieVie and Spikkel-VM are both beautiful birds. It is already his third year at this nest.

 

[Alison]

Thanks, Bev! I have not yet had a look at the third egg.

The first two eggs, and Spikkel-VM incubating:

 

[bev.]

as of tonight we have 3 eggs here 

[Alison]

Miep-VieVie laid her first egg on March 19:

 

[Alison]

The resident peregrines at this nest continue to be Miep-VieVie and Spikkel-VM.

March 18:

 

http://www.vwggemertslechtvalk.nl/

[burdi]

2nd chick hatched April 27, so lots of enjoyable videos today.

Here's a direct link to the Peregrine Movies:

http://www.beleefdelente.nl/filmpjes?filter=bird_slechtvalk&sort=created_at&search=

[burdi]

Copy of latest blog from VWG Gemert dated 04/26/2016:

The first young hatched and how!

Yesterday it was already clear that it would not be long before the first pup would crawl out of the egg. The female was last night 'high' on her eggs.

Early this morning she would not leave her clutch and we saw several times how the male tried to sit on the hatching eggs. All morning VM tried to get the female of the clutch. He pushed under her, hit his wings over her, lay down beside her, but nothing worked! Both parent birds heard peeping chicks from the eggs and we saw that both parents were communicating back.

Very special to see that these two relatively young peregrines have such a strong bond with each other but also with their future offspring. I am involved from the start in the peregrine falcons on the tower of De Mortel but strong pair bond and urge both parent birds I have not previously observed. Normally leave the male the female alone when the eggs hatch stand ?but this man wanted to experience up close. He came several times in the cupboard but got no chance. When the young from the egg came, he was there again as the chickens, but now he wanted to see the young and VV pushed just from the nest. Very nice for all of this to be able to see through the cams and most extraordinary how both parent birds interact with each other and the clutch.

The I wonder how they are going to care for and raise the young together, it will be fixed very beautiful special moments.

BDL 2016 peregrine falcons, every year different!

[burdi]

1st egg hatched today, and VM insisted on helping with the eggs and chick right alongside VV!

You can see this for yourself by watching the video called First Chick (EERSTE KUIKEN!).

Link to site including Cams and Videos:

http://www.beleefdelente.nl/vogel/slechtvalk

[Alison]

Miep-VieVie and Spikkel-VM have four eggs. I think Spikkel-VM has made some progress this year, since I have seen him taking his turn incubating. I don't know whether or not he is bringing food for Miep-VieVie, since I have not seen that happen, but I did see him having a meal on the roof while Miep-VieVie was incubating, which means he is at least hunting for himself this year.

The eggs are being incubated with great dedication and are rarely visible.

I did catch a shift change today; the four eggs were uncovered for only a moment.

 

[GCG]

I love this cam. Thanks for posting, Alison.

[Alison]

Miep-VieVie laid her first egg today.

 

 

http://www.vwggemertslechtvalk.nl/