Yira fledged on Saturday 16th nice and early. I took these photos the day before, so just in the nick of time. And there is one of the tower to show why it is so difficult for the fledgelings to return to the box itself.
Here are a couple of videos showing Yira taking off across the trees before turning back (rather skilfully in my opinion) towards the university buildings.
And from tower cam
This was a stronger first flight than Garrama and it is looking quite hopeful for her survival.
In fact she was spotted again on tower cam a few hours later flying around the roof tops below the tower.
We (myself and a volunteer from the Orange Field Naturalists) went out the next morning (Sunday 17th) to try and see her, but no luck. And the parents didn’t swoop us or make any warning calls, so I’m guessing she went for a bit of a walkabout (flyabout) around the campus beyond where we walked.
So please keep watching tower and ledge cam to look for movement and post timestamps on tower cam chat, so I can check these and then walk around on the ground to try and find her. I will also check the usual roost spots to try and see her and take photos. I doubt if she’ll be far away and may even come back to the top of the tower and the box within the week.
The first place I post updates is on the NEWS below the box cam stream. Updating the blog is often done a bit later as access from home can be tricky.