Marragaay steps up to the plate

Well the ledge anyway.   Here here she has a major flap, then joins little brother on the ledge for the first time.  As Sue has pointed out, Bali has been much more adventurous: flapping on the ledge, even doing pirouettes.   I’m sure he’ll go first, possibly this weekend.

One step for Marragaay to join her brother on the ledge

VIDEO  20171109 Marragaay joins Bali on ledge after major flap

 

I still can’t get over the size difference between these two.  Bali is really small, but getting a bit to eat – he even grabbed a prey before Marragaay (a scrap, rather than a whole bird, admittedly).    Prey has included two rock pigeons (both banded) plus one native crested pigeon (I think), starlings (one still alive that got chased around the box..not sure if this was a test for the youngsters or not, but they didn’t take the bait.  Xavier grabbed it and took off with it again)  and a few I can’t work out, but medium sized passerines, possibly wattlebird.  I do wish they would leave the heads on!

 

31 thoughts

  1. I hope this is all Bali.

    “Little boy Bali can’t wait to fly and hunt”

    3m25s VIDEO = =https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZ4wdvseTM

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  2. Lovely, scylla! Thank you.

    I notice breakfast this morning (Friday) included the head as per Cilla’s request – do you think the falcons read this blog?

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  6. I just came in at the tail-end of some breakfast delivery at 8:41 nest cam time and Marragaay is not sharing. Poor Bali was looking for an opportunity to get in even with Marragaay mantling over his food. Bali managed to get a hold but could not tear it away from his sister. I think he managed to get a few bites with all the chasing around. He is certainly very feisty. I wonder if Bali will gain weight once he fledges and starts catching his own prey. Does anyone know how long the parents will feed them once they fledge?

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  8. From our experience, the juveniles are around the area for 3-7 weeks after fledging. Basically, once they have the skills to be independent: catch/kill their own prey, they are on their own.

    Last year, all three disappeared after three weeks, although it is possible that the parents were still giving them lessons further from the campus. And one year, a sole female (Snow), became quite companiable with the mother (Swift) and was here on and off for a few months, often spending the night with her in the box, but it is unusual for the juveniles to visit the box once they have left – partly because it is so high and wherever they end up after their first flight is so low – the ground, a tree, the roof of a building.

    Once they go, I’ll check the recording (and post it) for the direction of flight and then will go and have a look for them. I always check all the car parks carefully as we don’t need that sort of accident. If they are on the ground, I’ll put them in the nearest tree (I carry a ladder for that purpose!), otherwise we don’t interfere.

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  9. I missed yet another delivery, there might have been one before 10:40 am nest cam time. Little Bali was finishing something off on the ledge. I caught some of the crazy running around too when Marragaay was trying to keep the food away from her brother. Thanks for the updates scylla, it is nice to catch up on things I missed.

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  10. I’m just watching Bali now, doing exactly what Aspro did when she got blown off the ledge at night during a storm: lying right on the ledge. I do wish they wouldn’t do that!

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  11. At 1:20 pm they are sharing the prey drop that Xavier brought in. Thanks for the info Cilla, I never realized that the nest is way higher that what it looks to be.

    I think Bali will fledge soon just to get a full meal now that Marragaay dragged it away from him.

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  12. Oh gosh! At 1:32 pm Bali almost felt from the ledge! He was on one foot cleaning the other when a gust almost took him over. He fumbled and then recovered. That was hard to watch!

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  14. There was a super tussle earlier which Marragaay won, but after eating for a while she deliberately passed it over to Bali at the ledge!

    I will do a video after a sleep 🙂 G’night.

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  15. Remember last year, when our little bloke fledged, then came back to the box a day or two later and looked as if he didn’t want to leave it ever again? And Diamond kept delivering food to him, all motherly, ha ha – my teenage son was a bit like that – kept coming back expecting to be fed…

    I wish Bali would be just a little more cautious! There will be heart attacks all over the place if this devil-may-care behaviour of his keeps up.

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  16. Oh, 3.40pm delivery – bravo,Bali! Was he allowed to keep his prize? There was a big time-lag between cameras, but I think he was!

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  17. Sue, he got it and held on to it! Marragaay was eyeing it but let Bali eat because I am guessing she is still full from the pigeon earlier. She did charge Xavier though and Xavier got out of dodge as fast as he could.

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  18. Just noticing that when Bali sits on the left side of the ledge he looks absolutely tiny – half the size of Marragaay, but when he sits on the right side they look almost the same size. Given the perspective due to the placement of the ledge cam closer to the right corner it’s a bit hard to judge the actual and relative size of each bird. Well, I think so, anyway… Is there any possibility, during the ‘off-season’, of putting some kind of measuring marks on the left hand side of the ledge? What do you think, Cilla? Scott?

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  19. I have to take that distortion into account when measuring the height of the bird to get the sex. Marragaay is almost the size of Diamond, but Bali is still a bit short for a male; maybe he’s just a small bird. And yes, I have thought of putting in a ruler or similar on each side, so will try and remember to do it (not this week, but).

    I will start a new thread tomorrow. I haven’t quite caught up and I’m going to concert tonight, so have to go. Maggie Ferguson playing Vivaldi’s Four Season on the Argentinian bandoneon…what a treat!

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  21. This was the episode where Marragaay shared the prey (not much choice) and ended up (apparently) giving remains of prey to Bali – also, a parent (which?) brings a starling(?) and lets it roll back over the ledge.

    2m39s VIDEO = https://youtu.be/_8dd3bRwlTo

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  22. 11.31am Sunday – is THAT poor dead thing clear enough, Cilla? *evil grin* It’s a bit dark in the box, but I can see it has a head.

    Hope your concert was fabulous – I had to google Bandoneon – can’t imagine Vivaldi on one!

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  24. That concert sounds cool! Hope you had a wonderful evening Cilla. Meanwhile these two rascals need to stop all their shenanigans on the ledge. A falcon cam here just reinstalled their nesting box to reduce blackfly infestations and have a lip outside to catch these eyases (https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b42e867b8354580b8ba9c242457ffa6945746ebeabe89ac6118ae73a2ba0b3d8.png)

    The actual falcon cam is at https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/falcon-nest-cam

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  25. That concert sounds cool! Hope you had a wonderful evening Cilla. Meanwhile these two rascals need to stop all their shenanigans on the ledge. A falcon cam here just reinstalled their nesting box to reduce blackfly infestations and have a lip outside to catch these eyases when they try their acrobatics.(https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b42e867b8354580b8ba9c242457ffa6945746ebeabe89ac6118ae73a2ba0b3d8.png)

    The actual falcon cam is at https://explore.org/livecams/falcons/falcon-nest-cam

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  27. Oh dear, I didn’t miss it by much. I wonder if anyone has a video?
    Godspeed dear Bali! Hope we see you again soon.

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  28. It’s early morning UK time and I saw that he was gone as soon as I woke up me and my gear 😉 I’m just taking the freezes out of the video.

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