This is pretty well it. All chicks are fledged now and I may try and get some free-flight snaps of the youngsters to post but essentially it’s finished …
November 26:
A quiet moment in the sun
Precarious exercise
Intense waiting
A quick starling delivery …mantled, dismantled, and bolted …
Chilling out …
How popular can a starling be …?
Got all directions covered
Preening as beak-to-beak nibbles still sometimes occurs
November 27:
We have lift-off … even if only for 1m … but the camera is malfunctioning
Itching to go …
November 28:
Some serious competition happens
Hiya!
Lift-off again
November 29:
So, swearing can fix a camera … streamlining and the waterproofing bloom now apparent
Except for the stockiness, this could be mistaken for an Australian hobby
Getting the good oil
Very dignified except for the starling scrap
A languid stretch … note how much longer the wing is now
Stalking a blowy
See this starling … it’s coming for ya
Dad looks frightened of being mugged
Hang the waiting … I’m off …
… really I am …
Maybe tomorrow …
Another gentle moment
Getting very casual with the edge now …
November 30:
Asleep with the beak under the wing … from the back
A frantic mantle over breakfast. One chick fledged yesterday … at 44 days-old … and she can intercept food deliveries …
A bit of preening …
… and a ruffle
… and a crap off the edge
… and the slightly older one is ready to go
The classic wide-shouldered build is very obvious in this quiet moment
December 1:
Early summer exercises …
… and a preen
The far bird is dismantling a starling … while the other begs, hoping for another
An undignified scramble as another is delivered …
… and taken to the back ledge where a kill bite is applied instinctively … needed or not …
… then eaten as the other, relaxed waits, the orange beak shows this starling is an adult
December 2:
… with her two sisters gone and no doubt intercepting food, the third screams like a banshee
Not a skerrick of down and nicely proportioned, the wings have about 3cm and the tail about 1.5cm to grow
Deliveries of takeaway juvenile starlings are more than enough
December 3:
The recalcitrant is still there at the crack of dawn …
… but now she’s gone; confirmed by telescope
Taking advantage of the empty-nest syndrome … mum arrives to clean up scraps …
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
• My, how you;ve grown (3) … another update on the Peregrines
• My, how you’ve grown (4) … another update on the Peregrines
• My how you’ve grown (5) … another update on the Peregrines
