My, how you’ve grown (3) … another update on the Peregrines

Classic underwing profile. Picture: Erin Harris

November 6

The brood wakes up with mum’s arrival. The young are much more mobile now and are using the high rise ledge behind the nest.

A scratch …

Was it a bird, a plane, or what?

Mum feeds them and wears a bit of by-product

A nestling backs up to defecate; the waste being squirted out on to the nest edge

Mum gets ready to launch …

… and shoves off on another hunt

November 7

Heavy rain and the nestlings are impatient to be fed

A few stretches …

A wet female arrives with the standard juvenile starling …

… and another …

… and rearranges the food

One of the nestlings gets an offer he can’t refuse … a leg

The brood wonder where the food went

The adult male arrives after handing over his loot

Mum takes over getting untidy with a bit of food stuck to her head …

… then a conspirational feeding

November 10

Pulling hard to dismember a starling …

… and a bit comes off

The female has a snack of scraps, showing off her long big-catching toes …

… and launches off

November 11

Growing fast, showing the wide, solid body and short legs built as shock absorbers

Learning to co-ordinate those oversized feet

A lovely stretch, showing the rapidly-developing flight feathers emerging from their blood-filled sheaths

Most feeding is still civilised

Some quiet time

Learning to co-ordinate those oversized feet

Dad arrives with a whole starling held from behind

Ever watchfull adult female. Picture: Erin Harris

THE PEREGRINE FALCONS ON TASMANIAN TIMES:

• An extraordinary Picture Essay: The nesting Peregrine Falcons …

• My, how you’ve grown … an update on the Peregrines

• My, how you’ve grown (2) … another update on the Peregrines