On Day 14 Solo is progressing well, even though ‘food on the wing’ seems to be in short supply since the big snow storm over the weekend (even with really wonderful weather this week), but no-one seems to be overly worried. Swift took a few breaks today leaving Solo to mind the eyrie. This mild weather is proving to be far better for the chick than in both previous seasons when we’ve experienced extremely hot & uncomfortable weather, not designed to make life easy in a crammed eyrie. This new enlarged roost design is proving its benefits though, with lots of room & better gravel base as peregrine benefits, and for us we have far superior camera angles.
Today’s videos can be found here (Solo getting to know what feet really do!), and another feeding session.
For those viewers local to Orange we’re showing FalconCam Project posters and information out at Australian National Field Days, tomorrow and Thursday, via the Nature Conservation trust and CMA tents.
Hi again Scott! I am the Kindergarten teacher from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada who posted a comment last week. I told my class that you were so happy to hear from us! They really enjoyed watching the video of Solo learning to walk! They also like watching Swift feed Solo! And now they have a few questions for you, if that’s okay. But only one question at at time…
They think that Solo eats worms, but I know that here in Winnipeg, our Peregrine falcons like to eat shore birds, particularly Sora Rails. They will, however, eat pigeons, if they are hard up because pigeons are plentiful in our urban areas. What does Solo and Swift and Beau like to eat?
Hi Kathy, Hi kids!!!! How are you all doing up there?! I hope you’ll working and studying hard in Winnipeg. We can answer your questions with what we know and what we’ve seen so far over the couple of years we’ve been watching our adult pair, Beau and Swift.
Our peregrine family don’t appear to be migratory and are happy to stay in and around the Orange region for the whole year (no doubt because the younger generation won’t stop harassing them for food!). Their current diet is very much based on what’s flying past at the time, as opposed to anything sitting, crawling or running across the ground. So far we’ve been able to recognise the likes of starlings (small and nimble but easy targets), galahs (which are a medium sized, relatively slow moving, pink coloured, Australian native parrot) with possibly the odd unfortunate pigeon thrown in as well. Any other types of birds they catch in the air are very hard to identify due to their condition when they arrive as a crushed up bunch of odd feathers and legs (I hope you’re not eating while you’re reading this!). Peregrine catch their prey by flying up high and then “stoop diving” at high speed down on to their catch to stun them. It’s seldom seen.
I hope this answers your question basically. Looking forward to more of them from you!
Scott