Aspro has surprised everyone and caught us on the hop by fledging early, although it appears it wasn’t entirely intended, nor was Aspro psyched and ready. Saturday 15th November 2014, 5.05pm local time Aspro left the eyrie during very strong winds and has now excperienced a night of rain and more strong wind – entirely out of character around Orange for many weeks now (high fire danger and total fire bans just the day before). At just 37 days old Aspro took flight from the Concrete Hilton, which is 2 or 3 days earlier than expected but still within the average.
Indeed Aspro has been showing increasing agitation over the past few days and for a full 2 hours before skipping off was madly flapping, jumping around and getting very close to the ledge – too close it seems this time as initial pics show Aspro desperately trying to get back up without luck, before disappearing east around the tower.
Two hours was spent this afternoon walking campus, down around the vineyards (located just east of the tower), through the tree and shrub thickets and around campus (as has been the need for previous fledgings), but to no avail. The good sign is that there hasn’t been any pile of peregrine feathers anywhere and a few seasons ago Solo disappeared before proudly returning 5 days later in cries of excitement. A worrying sign is that Swift sat on the ledge the whole time and never raised a cry while I was walking through the trees – a sign that she doesn’t know where Aspro is either, as normally she’d be making herself heard.
An email will go around the whole of campus to keep an eye out for a lost peregrine fledgling this week and once found we’ll identify but leave alone.
We can but hope Aspro survived the rainy night and has found shelter off the ground….. always sad to see the eyrie empty again, but after a positive sighting we’ll be overjoyed at having observed yet another new peregrine falcon obtain its wings.
[ video clip of Aspro slipping and falling from sight – apologies for the horrible video quality; we’re testing for present video issues ]
I do hope Aspro will be found. Dead or alive, at least we will know then.
Can she have landed on a roof of a building nearby or an enclosure of some kind?
If at all possible, keep a keen eye on the parents. If Aspro is still alive they should know where she is. Have you seen Beau by the way?
Swift was in the nest box, Beau came with prey. Swift took it and flew off with it, to the bare (dead?) tree at the right of the screen.
Beau cleaned his talons and flew to that same tree. And then a bird came flying from the left, could that be Aspro? (I truly hope so 🙂 )
Hi Ingrid,
We’ll keep an eye around campus for Aspro, who won’t be far away. After a 2 hour walk around campus grounds yesterday there was no sign of feathers or damage, so I’d imagine Aspro was hunkered down quietly somewhere, as young ones can do, avoiding being caught! A few years ago Solo took off for a few days so we’re hoping Aspro wil be doing the same.