The Peregrine Falcon season at Malabar Headland has been a frustrating one this season. On our previous visit, it looked like things may have been looking up, with possible late season nesting. Both adult Peregrine Falcons were perched near the nesting area for long periods, leaving only for some hunting. So, Valerie, Sue and myself made another visit – but this time, we only spotted a single adult Peregrine Falcon for a short time, just after we arrived. It soon flew off, and we didn’t see it or any others while we were there.
On the way out, we did see a number of Jacky Dragons.
Here is the single Peregrine Falcon we spotted. It looks like the male.
And then it flew off.
During our visit we also met fellow bird photographers Adam and Trish, but they didn’t stay long. And later William arrived.
Water Skink
Dolphins
Rufous Whistler
New Holland Honeyeater
We had a least day on the Headland, despite our lack of success with the Falcons. It was quite hot, but not too bad in the shade. In the afternoon there was a nice cool sea breeze.
Dear David
Thanks for your brilliant photos, as always.
Sorry our Peregrines have disappointed this year – do you think they had young or eggs failed to hatch or something else?
Is there enough food around – those other birds look very skinny!
For some time now people including me have been unable to view your photos without opening them in another tab – ie they don’t show up straight away, instead there’s a horizontal bar with a coloured logo in it. One has to right click then choose “Open image in new tab” to view each photo. I and others have tried different browsers, but the same thing happens: no photos.
Do you think this is a WordPress problem or a browser problem, eg old version of browser cannot handle photos/newer versions of browsers cannot open older WordPress formats? Just guessing, as I have no knowledge at all of these things.
Hoping to hear from you,
Claire Bettington, Friends of Malabar Headland.
Hello Claire. Yes – it is an ongoing problem that I am not sure how to fix. The photos load fine on my Mac with Safari. But if I use Chrome – then I have to go to the preferences and change the security settings a bit to allow photos from the blog to load. I recently tried Opera and Firefox on my iPhone and the photos seemed to load OK.
Hi David, I definitely saw a juvenile Peregrine falcon today cruising between Boora point and Magic point today 9th December, on my way back from Boora Point. It was a very slight version of the parents, it dropped from above and definitely saw its colouring. It appeared to be practicing.
Later more towards South Maroubra saw 3 birds one much larger than the other 2, I’m sure it was 2 juvenile Peregrine Falcons being chaperoned by mum, but couldn’t say definitively due to the light or lack of.
Regards Richard Czamara
Hi David,
I have some photos from the 10th December 2024 of a juvenile male peregrine falcon from just north of Boora Point (at the “amphitheatre”) and also so some of the female (mother).
I’m a friend of Alana Horan.
Regards Richard
Thanks for the update – and good to meet you yesterday on the cliffs. We saw one juvenile (cannot determine sex) and two adults. It is possible there could be more chicks that have not yet fledged.
It was good to meet you too.
This is great news, as I thought that their nest may have failed this year. I have posted some photos on FB, but haven’t identified where I took them, that would be like revealing your favourite uncrowded surf spot.
I also follow Friends of Malabar Headland on FB.