Di Flips A Chick Over & X Squishes One! Nice Feeding By Mum & GCW By X 😂 FalconCam Project 10.7.24

Here are a few of the highlights from today at the nest with Diamond and Xavier. My first video showed Xavier attempting to feed the chicks in the dark and doing a great job with Diamond watching with approval ♥

Here is the video in case you missed it:    • FalconCam Project ~ A Very Special Mo...  

As the video opens, Diamond gets up from brooding and accidentally flips a chick over! Oopsie Daisy! 😂 She comes right back to brood. Xavier brings prey and Di takes it and feeds the chicks - X does a GCW jump!

Di will take the prey to stash it and leaves the chicks - Xavier sneaks in and he is so happy to brood the chicks! But it lasts only a few seconds as Di returns and they have a conversation and he has to get up! When he gets up, his foot squishes a baby 05:33! 😂 Good thing the chicks are resilient! And a GCW jump and he is gone. X's GCW jumps are 01:52 02:23, 05:51 08:35.

Di will leave the chicks again and X comes in to brood for seven minutes! Di arrives with prey and he leaves so she can feed the chicks! GCW jump by X! You have to smile watching this falcon family ♥ They are so dedicated to each other and their chicks! Thank you for watching!

Video captured & edited by Lady Hawk

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1ST HATCH: Oct 4th 2024 00:24:12 🎉🎉
2nd HATCH: Oct 5th 2024 05:34"35 🎉🎉


GENERAL INFORMATION:
This is a research project through Charles Sturt University, Orange, New South Wales Australia, studying the diet and use of a nest box of a family of peregrines living in water tower since 2007. We now have nine years' worth of diet and seven years of behaviour data The cams go right through the year and are in daily use.

HISTORY:
The birds have been observed using the tower (a working water tower) since 2007, breeding in the box since 2008, with an average of 2.8 eggs per clutch and 1.5 fledges per season.

The parents' names are Diamond (female) and Xavier (male). Diamond took over from the older Swift in 2015 and Xavier replaced Bula in 2016 (who in turn replaced our first male, Beau, in 2015). Xavier arrived just as the eggs were hatching and saved the season by providing for Diamond and her three chicks. Assuming that they were at least two years old when they arrived, Diamond is at least eleven years old and Xavier nine (in 2024).

The male is 15-20% smaller than the female, has fewer spots on the chest and has brighter yellow-orange talons and beak. The birds do not migrate and courtship rituals and some scrape (nest) building continues throughout the year, intensifying, along with food bringing by the male, in July and August.

Eggs are laid usually in late August, with chicks hatching in early October and fledging in mid-November. The youngsters often stay around as late as March being taught to hunt by their parents, and often visiting the nest in the tower, so there is much to watch even out of the main breeding season. One male juvenile stayed until August the following year when his parents blocked his entrance to the box and he took the hint.
#falconCam #OrangeCSUfalcons #OrangeAustraliaFalcons #PeregrineFalcons #CSUorangeperegrinefalcons

Courtesy of Falcon Project Orange NSW Australia. Many thanks to Cilla Kinross, principal researcher at CSU.

   / falconcamproject  

Box Cam link: https://www.youtube.com/live/yv2RtoIMNzA
Ledge Cam link:    • Ledge Camera -FalconCam Project LIVE