Well, I didn’t have to look for him for long. He’s come back to the nest and is sitting there as I type, looking like Lord Muck. This is not unheard of, but fairly unusual, particular so fast after fledging. It’s a really long flight uphill for a young bird!
Now we just have to find Marragaay. The bird spotted in the trees earlier this morning was probably this one as the observer (who is very experienced) said she thought it was probably the male.
Thanks to all those eyes out there helping to spot our youngsters.
VIDEO 20171114 Bali comes home 
And we’ve found Marragaay, too. She was down near the water tanks below Dentistry, sitting on water pipe, just off the ground. She took off as I approached (to place her in a tree with a ladder) and flew towards the front entrance.
We (Tiffany and I) had a good look around, but couldn’t see her. She wasn’t flying that strongly, so didn’t go very far. She might have landed in some long grass and be well hidden.
I took a photo with my iphone, so will try and load that tomorrow.
A thunderstorm is brewing, so she might have a wet, hungry night.
Bali, however, is tucking into dinner in the eyrie, all creature comforts cared for! Having said that, the parents knew where she was I think as they were acting agitated when we were near her.
Wow, what a clever little bird! I wonder whether he’ll hang around for as long as Vim did last year – remember that? And now we get to wait for him to “fledge” all over again!
Hope Marragaay’s all right. I suppose, being so much bigger than Bali, she has to work much harder to stay aloft. Thanks heaps for the update. Glad the season hasn’t really ended for those of us watching from afar!!!
She would have been better off to have waited a couple of days and may have strained her wings a bit in that long first flight, but I’m sure she’ll be okay. Will keep an eye out for her.
Awww, just look at him sleeping on the ledge like a tiny grown-up… I hope the thunderstorm didn’t eventuate, and I really hope Marragaay has found somewhere off the ground to stay for the night.
I actually came on to check the messages as I logged onto ledge cam and thought BALI!! ….. and I was right! woot woot
The thunderstorm was all noise and blunder, hardly any rain.
Gosh, you were up early, Cilla! I’ve been thinking a lot about the return of the boys to the box. Clearly they have been the strongest fliers over the past two seasons, and both have returned to the box within a couple of days of fledging. Bali was obviously led back by an adult yesterday. I’m wondering whether they have brought the stronger flier back and left him there to cool his heels for a while, to give them time to focus on finding/helping the weaker flier? After all, they’re quite happily providing food for him (same as last year). It’s almost as if they’re saying “ok we know where you are and you’re ok – stay put and give us a bit of time to help your sister before you come out again”. Is that a silly idea? Am I over-thinking things or giving them more credit for reasoning than I should? Thinking back to last year, remember how one of the girls (the very clumsy one) barrelled out of the box sort of accidentally, probably before she should have…. and probably needed lots of attention from the adults. It just seems very coincidental that both boys have returned, and there’s evidence that a female fledgeling, both years, has been in need of quite a bit of assistance.
To support your theory Sue, males are 30% smaller so less weight to lug around. Nice to come home and see Bali again.
I’ve had young males that have needed assistance, too, so I don’t think one can draw conclusions from such a small data set. However, I’ll have a look at others’ work and see what they say and whether our finding support them.
Perhaps the more important question is: when do they fledge. If a bit before time, then females in particular are likely to struggle because they mature more slowly (you can tell by her fluffiness that she wasn’t really quite ready, I think).
And no, I wasn’t up early; sometimes insomnia gets the better of me. I’m now very dozy!
I’ll go and have another scout around this afternoon. There’s some quite heavy rain forecast.
In my rambling, I think what I was trying to suggest, rather than a sex-bias thing, was that the stronger flier (coincidentally a male in both cases here) returned to the safety of the box for a spell while the weaker flier who needed assistance (coincidentally females in both cases here) was then able to be the focus of parental attention. I think it’d be interesting to see whether that has happened in other places as well. Could be a nice insight into the workings of the peregrine mind 🙂
I hope you get your much needed rain (but I also hope poor Marragaay has somewhere safe and dryish to shelter!)
1526 Bali’s lunch time!
I wonder why they would fledge before they are ready…. (How do they even know whether they ARE ready?) I think it’s truly incredible the way they have all this stuff hardwired into them. The whole concept of leaping into thin air is just mind-boggling. I wonder what mechanism tells them they’re ready. Was Marragaay’s ‘ready’ signal faulty? Has the brain reached the equivalent of the adolescent risk-taking phase, where physical danger is often ignored? (PS Cilla, I’m not expecting you to furnish answers – I just find that the more I watch the falcons, the more questions I seem to have, and I quite like just thinking about them. I should go and look for these answers myself).
Seeing Bali there somehow reminded me of the little third one that didn’t make it. Shame.
Don’t fall off little one!!
https://screenshots.firefox.com/c1iDD5CNpGesXLSD/www.csu.edu.au
OMG just before 9.30pm he nearly DID fall off the perch!
Minnesota GSB has seen fledges fly back to nestbox.
One of them – Rusty – flew straight out – turned around-
lol – and flew right back in
Little Bali is now impatiently waiting for food. He has been pecking at all the left over feathers and wingercising like crazy at 5:30 am.
And off he flew at 5:39 am!
Bye bye Bali – again! (and I missed it – again!) That’ll teach me to trawl the net for falcon books in the wee hours, instead of watching the Real Thing!
And guess who is back again! Looks like Diamond and Xavier might have their work cut out with this one
He is in the nest box. He likes the place…
He seems to have it all worked out, doesn’t he?