Other Peregrine Projects > Australian Peregrines
NSW - Charles Sturt University - 2018 / Xavier & Diamond
Alison:
Hi burdi,
Thank you again for your updates! I am glad that the two beautiful chicks are doing well and growing nicely, but sad that the third chick was not able to hatch. Diamond has continued to incubate faithfully, doing her very best to help all three hatch.
All the images I have posted on this forum are suddenly gone. Don't know if the site is down, or totally gone. >:(
Trying a new image hosting site; I know nothing about this site, so not sure if it will be of use. Click on images to enlarge a bit.
I think Diamond has now decided to stop incubating the unhatched egg.
burdi:
Xavier finally found the opportunity to feed his chicks till they were stuffed this morning! He came in with prey at 7:12 am (Orange time) and was able to stay for 25 minutes! :)
burdi:
Thank you so much for your updates and pictures, Alison!
I did see the first hatch, and it was very special to see the little beak opened at the bottom of the screen as the baby begged for food (we couldn’t see the whole chick). I missed the second hatch but caught it on rewind; then soon after there were two little heads with opened beaks! So both chicks appeared very strong right from the beginning.
Their two precious chicks are now much larger and often in clear view. Congratulations to Xavier and Diamond! :)
burdi:
Note - Cilla offers us an opportunity to vote for names for the 2018 chicks in the following update!
DEADLINE Monday 8th October
One week old
Published 2 October, 2018 | By Cilla Kinross
Our two youngsters are doing very well, eating like piggies – see photo supplied by supporter ‘Moka’. This is the female, Diamond with her chicks.
You’ll notice that the third egg is still with us, but is clearly non-viable. Diamond is still incubating it from time to time, but I suspect she will quickly lose interest. It’s exactly the same scenario as last year. Two healthy chicks and one bad egg. But in the immortal words of Meatloaf: ‘two of out three ain’t bad’.
Prey has included the usual starlings, eastern rosellas and pigeons, but also what I think is a rail (basically, from the shape of its legs and feet), although it was rather pale for a rail (there’s a song in that:). Conditions for hunting have been very good, if occasionally too windy, but there is rain on the way, possibly starting tomorrow, so I hope Xavier has the roost tree well stashed.
We have started considering names for the two eyases. I have taken ten suggestions (from the Youtube Chat) and they will go to the vote by CSU staff, and web visitors, so I should have names in a week. I am NOT going to try to tell them apart, however, unless there are obvious differences – that way leads to madness! After 3-4 weeks, however, females should appear a bit bigger (and often bolshier).
The names that staff (and you) will get to select from are:
Cloud, Dust, Breeze, Sunny, Gamma (Wiradjuri for ‘Storm’), Fog, Rain, Burrawarra (Wiradjuri for Dusty), Rainbow, Budhin (Wiradjuri for Sunbeam). My apologies if you choice didn’t get up, but more than 10 seemed to be over-complicating things.
You can have a vote here too. Just pick your two favourite names and put them in the comments section. DEADLINE Monday 8th October.
Although Diamond does most of the feeding, Xavier is always keen to try his hand and just occasionally, he gets his way. You can clearly see the difference in these two photos, too, between the much smaller and brightly coloured male. Mind you, the chicks have grown so much in a day or two, that difference is not as obvious as it should be.
All the best. Cilla
See entire update by Cilla Kinross
Courtesy of FalconCam Project
burdi:
Close call on landing
Published 30 September, 2018 | By Cilla Kinross
This morning both parents landed on the ledge at once, causing a few anxious moments as it looked as thought they might collide.
There is no third hatch (and seems less and less likely) but the two chicks are doing very well. Plenty of food coming, so much so that Diamond is still rejecting some (well starlings, anyway). We think Xavier might have brought in a rail, too, which is unusual.
And finally, Dad is also getting short turns at keeping the chicks warm, although I haven’t seen him feeding them yet (he tries, but Diamond assumes he is incompetent and takes over).
See this entire update by Cilla Kinross
Courtesy of FalconCam Project
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