Other Peregrine Projects > Australian Peregrines
NSW - Charles Sturt University - 2016 / Bula & Diamond
The Peregrine Chick:
Update - October 13th
Xavier goes fishing and has abrupt exit
Xavier has brought in a water bird chick; not sure of the species – possibly a young coot or duckling – suggestions welcome; I’l keep searching as it is a very interesting catch – obviously way too young to be flying, but presumably it wasn’t caught actually on the water, so perhaps on or near nest or nearby land.
As you are much quicker than me, you’ve probably already you-tubed this, but never mind. I’ll have a look at your comments later.
I’m a little bit worried about the length of time the nest is being left empty. I’m sure that is quite unusual. I can only assume that Xavier is not really pulling his weight yet and Diamond is still doing quite a bit of the hunting. I hope that he gets his act together before the birds get much bigger (and hungrier).
I’m getting behind again and won’t be able to update tomorrow or Saturday, but will try and catch up on Sunday. Goodnight!
The Peregrine Chick:
Update - October 12th
Relationship consummated ?
I couldn’t see exactly because of the camera angle, but Xavier has certainly tried to mate with Diamond (and the ‘kicking episode’ was I think another aborted attempt) – in fact while she was covering the eyases. This is unusual behaviour for our birds; while the sulphur-crested cockatoos carry on as if the nest-box was a brothel, the falcons have always cemented their relationships outside (not in any demure way, I should add, as it often happens right on top of the water tower!).
Although Xavier hasn’t brought much food into the box and when he does, he is a bit shy of handing it over, I think he is hunting and handing prey over outside and probably also using a cache as Diamond often comes back with prey dressed to eat in a time period that is not possible for her to have made the kill herself. In fact I’ve seen her chase after X when he does a fly-past (probably with prey, but I couldn’t see).
I’m not concerned about the naughtiness of Xavier in not handing over the prey. That was common with other males, at least to start with and I think he is probably a first-time “father”. I don’t know if behaviour is different from actual fathers…something I’ll look into when I get time, but I do think they have to learn how to raise chicks and Diamond appears to be happy to teach him.
Prey has been difficult to identify due to it generally being well plucked and dismembered, but there have definitely been pigeons, starlings and rosellas (I think this is probably a crimson rosella), all good sized birds and I’ve noticed that Diamond is usually careful to see that all three chicks get a feed.
And yes we probably should start thinking about names. I was reluctant before as I wasn’t confident of any chicks surviving, but I’m feeling better about this now. What about naming them for local eucalypt species where they roost? dives,(pronounced: DIVE-es), melliodora, viminalis, bridgesiana, rubida, mannifera, blakelyi (perhaps suitably abbreviated: dive, mell, vim, bridge, roob, manni, blake). Of course, they are pretty difficult to sex or tell apart until they are a few weeks old, but one can try!
Put a post up with your three favourites and I’ll do a quick poll!
I’m busy with preparing our site for tree-planting and propagation Thursday and Friday, and the day itself is on Saturday, but will keep an eye on things and will come in on Sunday to try and catch up.
The Peregrine Chick:
Update - October 11th
What I actually do and week old chicks
I’m still only up to last night, so I think I should explain what I’m actually doing. Every action 24/7 and usually 52 weeks of the year (but with some gaps) is recorded in 1/2 minute intervals and is summarised hourly. Categories include all the behaviours that you might expect such as incubation, feeding chicks, eating, interaction etc. with male, female and (eventually) juvenile behaviour recorded in separate columns. And this is the fifth year. I was hoping to compare the Swift/Beau pair (3 years) with Diamond/Bula (3 years, including 2017), but of course circumstances have intervened. I also record all the prey items and store images of these and I have a huge collection of videos and stills of the prey (and of course of much of the other behaviour). One prey item yesterday was probably a parrot by a glimpse of royal blue.
So those of you who were wondering if I needed to be sent images, notes etc. be assured that that is not necessary, though I appreciate your kind thoughts. When one of the cameras was not linked to the recording software, I did have a problem for a week, but that’s now fixed. The Milestone software allows me to skip periods of inactivity (but there’s not much of that at the moment!).
I’m going a bit more slowly this year, partly because so much has been happening, but also because I’m entering the hourly summaries into a spreadsheet as I go along. In previous years, I didn’t do this and so I now have a huge backlog to enter. If anyone feels like helping out in this respect, let me know:).
So apologies if I can’t give you instantaneous feedback, but at the moment I’m struggling to keep up. I can’t leave the recording of the data too long as it overwrites itself when the full. And I’m away several days next week for meetings next week (I’m on the Executive of our state Nature Conservation Council, plus up to my ears in other conservation/landcare/music groups), so it’s not going to get any better (but at least Scott will be back). I have a major landcare-cum-music event to organise for Saturday, so it’s a busy week and I do need to go home occasionally!
And you should be aware that the research, whilst approved by the CSU Animal Ethics committee, is virtually unfunded and both Scott and I volunteer our time, so I’d like to thank you for your patience.
But everything is going really well with our new pair and their approximately week old chicks, eyes just starting to open.
Good good luck and good night. We have someone coming tomorrow to do some recording, which will be interesting.
The Peregrine Chick:
Update - October 10th
Male on steep learning curve
Xavier has not been bringing much food into the nest-box, but I think he’s passing prey to Diamond and/or caching it nearby. She came in with some prey yesterday morning that had clearly been caught either the night before or by Xavier in the dark….
So I”m a bit worried about the total extent of food coming in, I’m please with the way she has accepted the new male, and is quite happy to leave him alone with the chicks. Here is actually approaching (briefly) the young ones.
Hopefully he will realize that he can feed them too.
This has to be brief as my time is extremely limited today and tomorrow. I’ll catch up eventually!
The Peregrine Chick:
Update - October 8
Let’s call him Xavier
Well I’m not sure he will be the ‘saviour’, yet, but things are looking a lot more promising and, you are right, as usual, he has brought in his first prey (not sure what this is, possibly a tree-creeper by the colouring, but a smallish passerine anyway).
The juvenile male we saw before might well be Tardy, and, if so, I’m rather glad he was not accepted as a suitor! If this male (Xavier) is an offspring of Swift, then there is no relationship.
Earlier Diamond also brought in some prey after a short absence (14 minutes) which makes me suspect the prey has either come from Xavier, or was possibly from a stash. She also brought in a scrap of prey at 0943 after a very short absence of 5.5 minutes and this was clearly not her kill. So I think he is helping from the sidelines at least.
I’ve tried uploading video, but even a three second video is too large (over 50 MB). I’ll see if there is any way that I can reduce the resolution through changing the format.
Thanks for all your comments and pictures. Even though they can’t see or hear us, I feel that perhaps they know we are cheering them on, somehow (daft, I know). In respect of the ‘what’s in it for him’ – the answer is that good territories are rare, especially ones with such a good nest site, so if she accepts him, he’s set for life (less of the peregrinations!).
I have to chair a full day conservation meeting in Wellington, NSW tomorrow, so am unlikely to be in, so will talk to you on Monday afternoon.
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