Avian Soap Opera
Week from Monday 22nd May 2023 - One of the (few remaining?) enjoyable things about Twitter is to follow annually the adventures of the various PEREGRINE FALCON communities scattered throughout the country (and beyond! Holland, Italy, even the US of A). Many a church tower or hospital roof is now home to a pair of raptors, and most have installed camera feeds, usually sponsored by local businesses.
It is fun to compare how the various birds are faring in different parts of the country - which ones mate first, which ones lay eggs first, which ones hatch and how many, then seeing which of the little fluffy characters make it to 'fledging'. The whole process happens in a remarkably short time, from about early March through to June, but there is a lot of variety. At this time of typing, some have only JUST hatched their first couple of chicks, while the more advanced offspring are already flapping like billio and getting ready for their first attempts at actual flying.
This year's most compelling avian soap-opera has been from the family of @FaBperegrines who live on top of Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham. I believe this has been the third or fourth season that TOM and AZINA have paired up, so they're fairly experienced as peregrines go.
Incidentally, I've learnt that the larger females are called 'FALCONS', the males are called 'TIERCELS' and the chicks are called 'EYASES', at least until they can be 'sexed'. It's usually only when the chicks are ringed for identification that their gender can be determined. There doesn't appear to be any fixed pattern as to the frequency of how the chicks hatch. Some are 'born' a week apart, some all arrive on the same day. The widely varying colour of the eggs has also been a point of discussion.
This year, Tom and Azina had four eggs, but only three of them hatched (This seems to be fairly average - one or two groups have had all four chicks survive this year, but that's pretty rare). All three chicks were doing well, until the oldest one went down with THE FROUNCE (aka Canker or Trichomonas), a parasitic protozoan that settles in the bird's throat and stops them eating. Sadly, he didn't survive. Come RINGING DAY, it was discovered that the youngest one was also showing signs, but she was rescued in time and is doing well at her luxury vet's. So that just leaves the middle one, not yet named but going by the ring-title of 'P6T', who is now at that stage where he flies off and goes missing! When first they FLEDGE, the young birds are able to fly DOWN to a nearby roof, but are unable to make it back UP again to the nesting box. So they have to rely on them pesky humans to give them a lift home! At first, not so much 'flying' as a semi-controlled descent... (He's just been found on the roof of one of the other hospital buildings, having paid a visit to the graveyard across the road.)
Last year's newest member of the Tom and Azina Fulham-Barnes family was a falcon called INDY. She'd shown early signs of INDYpendence from the get-go... and she's just turned up in POOLE, of all places!
Meanwhile, the three chicks who live on top of Kingston College have also been HAVING A GO at that new-fangled flying lark, with controlled flaps up onto the top of the nesting box.
My new 'FAVOURITE WASTE OF TIME'...
It is fun to compare how the various birds are faring in different parts of the country - which ones mate first, which ones lay eggs first, which ones hatch and how many, then seeing which of the little fluffy characters make it to 'fledging'. The whole process happens in a remarkably short time, from about early March through to June, but there is a lot of variety. At this time of typing, some have only JUST hatched their first couple of chicks, while the more advanced offspring are already flapping like billio and getting ready for their first attempts at actual flying.
This year's most compelling avian soap-opera has been from the family of @FaBperegrines who live on top of Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham. I believe this has been the third or fourth season that TOM and AZINA have paired up, so they're fairly experienced as peregrines go.
Incidentally, I've learnt that the larger females are called 'FALCONS', the males are called 'TIERCELS' and the chicks are called 'EYASES', at least until they can be 'sexed'. It's usually only when the chicks are ringed for identification that their gender can be determined. There doesn't appear to be any fixed pattern as to the frequency of how the chicks hatch. Some are 'born' a week apart, some all arrive on the same day. The widely varying colour of the eggs has also been a point of discussion.
This year, Tom and Azina had four eggs, but only three of them hatched (This seems to be fairly average - one or two groups have had all four chicks survive this year, but that's pretty rare). All three chicks were doing well, until the oldest one went down with THE FROUNCE (aka Canker or Trichomonas), a parasitic protozoan that settles in the bird's throat and stops them eating. Sadly, he didn't survive. Come RINGING DAY, it was discovered that the youngest one was also showing signs, but she was rescued in time and is doing well at her luxury vet's. So that just leaves the middle one, not yet named but going by the ring-title of 'P6T', who is now at that stage where he flies off and goes missing! When first they FLEDGE, the young birds are able to fly DOWN to a nearby roof, but are unable to make it back UP again to the nesting box. So they have to rely on them pesky humans to give them a lift home! At first, not so much 'flying' as a semi-controlled descent... (He's just been found on the roof of one of the other hospital buildings, having paid a visit to the graveyard across the road.)
Last year's newest member of the Tom and Azina Fulham-Barnes family was a falcon called INDY. She'd shown early signs of INDYpendence from the get-go... and she's just turned up in POOLE, of all places!
Meanwhile, the three chicks who live on top of Kingston College have also been HAVING A GO at that new-fangled flying lark, with controlled flaps up onto the top of the nesting box.
My new 'FAVOURITE WASTE OF TIME'...
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