Melbourne Peregrines

October 02, 2022

There was a rash of media commentary a few days ago about the Peregrine Falcons that nest of 376 Collins St, Melbourne. This seems to have been catalysed by a bit of Game of Thrones type behaviour (ie two tiercels having a turf war in which the previous male - to quote from Lonnie Donegan's recording of the Battle of New Orleans - came off rather ignominiously. Also the eggs were seen as likely to start hatching in the very near future.

So I bookmarked the Mirvac site - just a webcam, no emotive witter- and started watching. I have evolved a few tricks to make gathering snips easier. Most of them are illustrated in this snip.

(1) shows the time and date an image was taken. That is very useful if someone else posts a screen dump and you want to see what led up to the shot (or what happened next). By way of example, the image Julie posted as a comment on my Facebook post).

(2) is basically a 12 hour (I think) timeline. So if you clock on the middle of this it takes you back 6 hours etc. By hovering the cursor just above the line and sliding it you can get the equivalent of a very fast forward. I find this good if you want a quick overview - eg when were both birds on the ledge. (I get to fine forward below.)

(3) If you have screen playing the double vertical lines for 'pause' appear here. That makes it a lot easier to do a screen grab.

{not shown on the image} Using the left and right arrows on the keyboard shifts the image forward or backwards in 5 second increments. That is how I fine tune my scrolling.

Enough with the methodology already. Here are some grabs over the last two days.

Basic falcon fussing around over the nest.

Showing a couple of chicks (technically eyasses).

The falcon has gone for a fly round showing the three chicks and an unhatched egg. She did not come back with prey.

I think this is the falcon again: I don't know if she caught the prey or if the tiercel delivered it to her. She is about to feed the morsel in her beak to one of the chicks.

Fresh from the Anals of Crap Bird Photography; here she is is landing back on the ledge.

The tiercel drops in for a visit.

I think this is the falcon heading out.

This is the tiercel peering at the chicks. He shaded them well but didn't settle down on them as does the falcon when she is brooding.

I think this is the falcon returning. My favourite action shot thus far.

Another day, more Peregrine action early on 3 October.

I don't know what the prey is: at least pigeon sized. It has been pre-plucked which makes me wonder if it is from a cache: from reading the FB group they store food in other places - some across the Yarra - and bring it as needed.

The next image shows the three chicks: the fourth egg didn't hatch and has been removed Note from future: that is incorrect the 4th egg did hatch a bit later and the chick must have been hidden in the heap!

Also from the FB Group: the female is also new this year. I am not sure how that is known as the birds aren't banded! (There seems to be less drivel on that group than is usually the case with nestcam groups, but it is still fairly fertile ground for anyone doing a PhD on anthropmorphisms.)

Here are a couple of snaps from early on 4 October. I still can't ID the prey but at last I could see a couple of avian feet at one point (and am thus confident they haven't been raiding the meat stalls at the Queen Vic Markets).

Well I am hornswoggled! I was sure that only 3 eggs had hatched, and one had disappeared, but to my amazement there are 4 frisky chicks in the nest getting fed on the morning of 7 October!

Here are a few more clips. Starting with an adult arriving.

.. and an adult departing.

On 16 October - when we are just up a few streets - the tiercel brings in a sparrow-sized breakfast.

Then the falcon arrives (enabling the sex-ID of the two adults). She is a bruiser!

Shortly after the snack is demolished the falcon returns with a pretty fresh-looking pigeon. Interestingly, she doesn't do much plucking but just starts ripping out morsels to feed to the horde.

On 18 October the tiercel brought in some prey that had been pre-plucked. The falcon soon arrived and took it off him.

He then took off while she hopped over to the eyasses and fed them. The eyasses look rather nervous here, but they seem to live in a heap most of the time and are all looking at breakfast.

I missed a couple of weeks, during which the eyasses took to spending most time at the far end of the ledge, so the orientation of the camera was changed. Here are some photos from 5 - 7 November: getting close to fledging.

Meals on w...ings (not wheels).