My, how you’ve grown (6) … a (final) update on the Peregrines

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