Juveniles in and on top of tower

Sorry, I lost admin access for a bit, but I have it back.

This is the scene where Diamond has brought in a red wattlebird, but for some reason it is not eaten by Bali, who presumably is already full (too many mince pies!).  This was the last time I’ve seen the young male juvenile ie almost exactly two days ago.  Has he flown the coop?  He’s certainly not in the box at night any more, which is either empty or occupied by Diamond (adult female).

This prey species was easy to identify, being whole, but most prey brought into the box to be consumed by little ones comes minus head, wings, tail and feathers, so is quite a challenge!   I’m putting in for a small grant to get some decent video and still image enhancer, plus a research assistant to see if we can nail down some of the hundreds of prey that I have not yet been able to identify.  Or failing identification to species level, consider some way of usefully classifying each prey by size, family etc.  Ideas welcome!

Thanks to Shep who spotted some courtship interaction between Diamond and Xavier (adult male) yesterday morning.  My screen recording is pretty coarse and I missed it.   I really, really, want Milestone back!    Sorry, it’s only the ledge recording, so there are some gaps.    Having said that, I can at least make longer recordings with this system.

And thanks to Scott, who has done all this extra voluntary work to get the systems (or most of them) up and running again.    Going home for a swim, but will be back this evening.

And finally, I did a round up of the usual haunts yesterday evening.  Still no sign of Bali, but I found the rest of the family in and around the tower: Marragaay looking very regal on top, occasionally whining, Diamond, snoozing, tucked into the microwave dish and Xavier in the box.

    

16 thoughts

  1. No worries, Cilla. You and Scott have been brilliant when it comes to keeping us all up to date, especially this close to Christmas! Many thanks to you both.

  2. I’m listening beautiful songs of Australian birds from your YouTube cameras!

    Dec. 24 11:09 am, While D was in the box, X came in and left.

    Dec. 25 9:40 am, D was in the box and I heard a juvenile’s call.

  3. I had a good look around at noon today (25th); no sight or sound of juveniles in their usual haunts, but I’ll check out Kaoru’s call from this morning.

    I’ll be going out to the uni daily, except over next weekend/New Year (Gulgong Folk Festival – I have a song in the song-writing competition!), when I’ll just to have to lose data, alas, unless anyone else is recording?

  4. Sorry, couldn’t pick up the juvenile call, nor the fly by.

    And worse, I came out last night to change the tape, but somehow didn’t record over night… Diamond appeared to be settled in for the night at 11 pm. Does anyone know what time she left, or any other sightings between 5 am and 1130 am?

  5. Great video, Chao. I didn’t record this at all. Great to see Marragaay still around. I think it is her by the size.

    I managed to stuff up the recording last night, so any sightings between 11 pm and 11.30 am this morning (26th) would be most welcome. Diamond appeared to be in the box all night, but I don’t know what time she left, nor when Xavier arrived.

  6. Thanks, Chao.

    I’ve set the tape at 3 pm to run 23 hours, but I don’t know whether it will go beyond the 2 GB limit when it usually stops if no end time provided. If it does, it will save me a second trip to the unit at night, so fingers crossed. I nearly hit a young black steer on the road last night and had to ring security to alert the farm manager. If it doesn’t, I’ll be begging for sightings again.

  7. Thanks for that Kaoru. Unfortunately my efforts at scheduling the recording left me with nothing (5 GB of grey screen) until 0500 (when I started recording at home). Do you know how long she stayed?

  8. Hi Cilla, yesterday pm 7:42 Marragaay yalling close to the box, Diamond flied out ,
    then Marragaay jump in, stay in box , pm 7:43 flied out.

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