Well, I’m back from Bellingen after a week of relatively balmy weather to be thrown back into this seemingingly unending heatwave. 37 C in Orange yesterday (record is 38.1C) and 35 today (already 30) and over 30 until Friday when a cool change is on the way.
Peregrines will need to catch their prey very early late as there is little bird movement after 830, except for waterbirds, who’ll need to watch out!
Gaama is still with us, a bit surprisingly, but not a record. I need to chek when I’m back at work, but I think it was about 20 February when the young female Snow finally left. She often stayed in the box with her Mum, Swift, during both day and night time, and there didn’t appear to be any hurry to move her along. They seemed quite companiable. Mind you, Swift was by then getting very old and may not have been up to a squabble with a feisty female.
Here is Gaama on Friday playing with a feather, then leaving the box.
I haven’t been able to catch Gaama on camera; perhaps she has found a shadier spot. But I found Diamond in the roost trees on Friday morning, so here are a few shots:
If you are in eastern Australia, please try and keep cool this weekend!
Cilla
Beautiful pictures of Diamond. Hope it really does get cooler soon. Also hope Gaama will break Snow’s record! (Btw I noticed you called Gaama “she” in your blog 😉 )
Goshawkeyes11, in particular, is hoping Gaama will stick around and produce some eggs, ha ha, to end the debate over Gaama’s sex!
This insane weather must surely end soon. We have been very lucky in Mallacoota, with only one scorcher at a time, followed by cool weather (17C today after Friday’s 38!) The rest of eastern Australia is setting new temperature records daily…
Diamond’s full-to-bursting crop suggests she’s not going without, despite the heat – amazing! (Earlier in the week she DID nick a choice item that Xavier had left in the box, while poor panting Xavier went without.)
Thanks for updates, Cilla. As Birdie noticed, is finally Gaama a “he” or a “she” ?
Nice pics of Diamond !
Great pics Cilla!!
Yes Gaama is a girl….
I’m pretty confident tht Gaama is a he. When the two juveniles were in the box together, one was slightly larger, so we thought it must be a female, but it is clearly too small for a female, and size is the main determinant. There is a slim possibility, of course, that Gaama is an extremely small female. The she I was referring to in my blog was Snow from many years ago.