NSW - Charles Sturt University - 2017 / Xavier & Diamond

[burdi]

Update by Cilla Kinross, September 22

Up and down

Everything seems to be working at present from my end, although I understand there are still live streaming problems.  I’ve contacted Scott about this.    In the box, all is going smoothly and I’m hoping to have some hatching by 25-28th September, which I can record if all the necessary equipment is functioning smoothly.   Xavier did bring in some (unidentifiable) prey today, which is a good sign.



Many thanks for all the photos and videos.   No need to send more photos at present, but long low resolution videos from between 1300 h on 18th September to noon on 21st would be welcome so I can fill in some gaps.   If there is a website where these are stored, please point me in the right direction.  Don’t try and email them.

I just went through the volunteer’s work from the time I was in Brisbane and found this photo of Xavier with the eggs that I couldn’t resist.  Such a good boy.


Proud father

There’s going to be a university wide power outage tomorrow morning, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the system is down all weekend.   Hopefully it will be up again before H day (possibly Monday).

Have  a lovely weekend.   Cilla

Source: http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/up-and-down/

Click on the above link to check for further photos or videos. Videos from Cilla are usually in AVI format, but they download quickly and should play in Windows Media Player (or whatever player you prefer for AVI).

Live streaming problems still continue - on and off and on and off and … sure hope they manage to fix the problem before hatching!

[burdi]

Cilla Kinross says:
20 September, 2017 at 2:08 pm      

I should add that, even if I had the time, I don’t have access to the live webcams either (which I’m assuming are working okay), so am quite blind to the behaviour in the nest. In theory, I could record comings and goings in the field, but just don’t have time. as this would mean sitting outside 24/7!

Source: http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/both-cams-gone-now/

[burdi]

Update by Cilla Kinross, September 20

Both cams gone now

We have a major technical hitch, unfortunately.  Scott is working on it, but I don’t know when we will get recording back up again as there doesn’t appear to be a simple solution.  So keep your photos and comments coming, if it is not too much trouble.   I have to admit that I’m not sure at this stage how useful they will be.  When it was just the ledge cam out, it was wonderful as your photos confirmed my assumptions, but now with both out, it will be very patchy as I record the duration of all  behaviour of both birds in minutes (and half minutes), not just when things happen.    Happy for suggestions for new solutions.  I believe there is a program that records screen shots every few minutes or similar, which I’ll look into.

Chicks are due to hatch 25-28th September……so not that long, now.

Thanks so much for all your help.

Cheers

Cilla

Source: http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/both-cams-gone-now/

[burdi]

Update by Cilla Kinross, September 17

Ledge cam out

The ledge camera still seems to be working live, but I’m not getting any recordings, so I have a favour to ask.   If you have any sightings of either bird sitting on the LEDGE between  0400 h on 16th September till now (well, until we can get it fixed), I would very much appreciate it.   Most of the important data are still being captured fine by the nest camera, but as Xavier often sits on the ledge while Diamond is incubating, I’m missing these data unless I can see his tail.   If I can get spot sightings, I can probably be safe making assumptions about his presence/absence.

I was getting a bit worried about the lack of food prey coming in, but clearly Xavier is a modern peregrine, which thinks the female should do her share of hunting!   She sometimes comes back from quite long absences with blood on claws, pretty good evidence of hunting (although the off site stash is still an option).   She clearly was not that hungry on the 15th as she lay next to a stashed starling for some time, as did Xavier – see photo. Most prey has been starling or pigeon and X still seems to think that the eggs can eat the prey.  That bodes well for him sharing feeding duties when the chicks emerge.

I’ve noticed that Xavier also spends quite a bit of time relaxing on the ledge, while Diamond is incubating (but not the other way around).  This behaviour is peculiar to this pair.   And he also is spending considerable time incubating and is quite comfortable doing this.   Certainly neither Bula or Beau, our two previous boys, were that competent in that department – often being quite clumsy and wanting to quit soon after settling.  And the previous female, Swift did not do any hunting to my knowledge once eggs has been lain until much later.  She had short breaks and chased the boys out as soon as possible (that’s if there were still there!).    Mind you, she was an old girl and in her later years spent much time sleeping in the box, even in the day time.

Cheers  Cilla

Source: http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/ledge-cam-out/

[burdi]

Scott replaced the infrared illuminator and included a photo of it in this latest update.

Night light is in

Published 9 September, 2017 | By Scott Banks

The new infrared illuminator went in this afternoon. It was fairly straightfoward, although Diamond was put out with the disturbance. She came back after about 10 minutes though. The old illuminator had 12 LEDs but this new unit has 48 so we’re hoping it’s not going to be too bright. Darkness will tell, shortly now as I write. If it’s too bright we may be able to cover part of the illuminator to cut it down. Time will tell but this should give us overnight coverage again.

[ IR illuminator works! That’s good quality night vision but we might try to cover a few LEDs to cut the light down a little… Scott ]

http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/night-light-is-in/

[The Peregrine Chick]

Not an odd fellow at all - all our males do this to a greater/lesser degree.  Even young Pip learned the trick early on.  . Ivy also used to bring in twice as much food as the chicks needed and as they were dropping into food comas Princess would leave with the leftovers to eat elsewhere.

[burdi]

Update Published 8 September, 2017 | By Cilla Kinross

Good boy, or odd chap?

Got back from Brisbane late Tuesday and just catching up with our pair.   I’ve noticed that Xavier has stopped bringing in much food and is keen to help out with the incubation (something previous males were not that keen to do usually, especially with three eggs).  He even arrived at one time having clearly just made a kill, with blood on his feet.  That seems a bit cheeky, or is he stashing the prey for Diamond (see below)?

And he’s hanging about waiting for her to move so he can take over (at least I assume that’s what he’s up to….)….often he’s reluctant to move when she returns from her excursion.   He seems very comfortable and is usually not having problems settling over the three eggs and on one occasion he stayed almost motionless incubating for four hours while Diamond was off gallivanting about, presumably hunting for herself.

On one occasion, Diamond left with a prey (starling) that Xavier did bring – she then returned in four minutes minus prey.  That’s odd.  She can’t have plucked and eaten it in that time, so I can only assume it was either stashed in a tree or she dropped it and couldn’t find it.  It was early in the morning so she must have been hungry.   I’m going to try and find some time next week to have a look around the park as I think there must be a stash in the trees.  It will be a bit like the proverbial needle unless I get lucky.    Usually they use the box, but Xavier has seemed reluctant to do this.

The night light has arrived, but needs some mechanical adjustment as the stalk is too short.  Scott is working on this and we should have light at night again early next week.

Source http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/

Photos and videos can be found in the above link.

[burdi]

Cilla also wonders if Xavier has been stashing his food and will try to have a look around the park. Hope she’s able to spot something!

This morning, Xavier took over incubation at 0722 hrs, but they’ve switched again since then (which I didn’t see), and Diamond is currently on the eggs.

[burdi]

Update Published 8 September, 2017 | By Scott Banks

Night lighting progress

The good news is the new infrared illuminator has finally arrived, but the bad news is we can’t fit it until this weekend. A climb was attempted yesterday to check unit mounting etc and the current hole, where the 10 year old camera sits, is too high for the new IR unit, so a higher block needs to be built, and for the sake of speed and choreography a g-clamp will be used to fit the IR unit block to the ledge. Diamond seemed little phased yesterday with the deliberately planned noise behind the box but refused to leave her post. We have a piece of board that can go across the open camera hole while swapping the units across, so she’ll definitely hear us but will be spared the horror of seeing our human faces!
Hopefully tomorrow, Saturday, will see the IR unit fitted and working, and then we wait for night to see whether it’s too bright or not bright enough. It can shine to 20 metres in the darkness so we may melt the peregrines! Apologies to Diamond for the disturbance but it will be necessary, and apologies to our viewers. The two HD cameras can handle around .0001 lux (which is VERY, very dark) but the box isn’t lit by any ambient light at all so an IR unit is necessary.

http://www.gumtreecs.com.au/wordpress/

[burdi]

Xavier returned at 0925 hrs! I didn’t see any food, though I do suspect a cache. Hopefully Cilla will soon have an update for us.

[burdi]

Diamond was incubating at 0555 hrs this morning, but when I looked again , at 0642 hrs, Xavier was incubating. Then at 0651 hrs Diamond was back! I don’t know if any food came in, though Xavier might be leaving it in a cache at times. Hmm, Xavier showed up again at 0819 hrs (but only stayed a minute), and Diamond did not get up … she’s still on the eggs right now.

[burdi]

The temperature in Orange was 2.2°C when I saw a change of shift at 0634 hrs and suspected Diamond was returning from a short break. Currently, Xavier is on the eggs. (I’ve had little chance to keep a close eye on them.)

[Alison]

Still three eggs:

[Alison]

Thanks for the  update, burdi!

 

 

[burdi]

This morning at 0825 hrs, Diamond quickly jumped up and flew off. I think she might have seen Xavier with prey, as Xavier was sitting on the eggs when I changed cams. Later, at 0903 hrs, Diamond took over incubation, and she’s currently still there.