This was a fairly quiet day spent in Malabar Headland National Park. The weather was fine and very hot, and I think this was why I did not see too much wildlife.
It was windy, and I thought that the Peregrine Falcon may be flying around. When I arrived at its roosting site, I met some guys there that were taking steps to set up a highline right over the nesting and roosting site of the Peregrine Falcons. I was concerned that this may be very detrimental to the birds and asked them not to do this. They were unaware of the area being a Peregrine Falcon nesting site, and they readily agreed to halt their activities. I explained that the birds were not nesting at that time, but that one of the pair uses the cliffs next to the nest site for roosting, resting and eating food. We all agreed to do some research to see if we could find more information about whether their activity would be detrimental to the birds.
In many places where Peregrine Falcons are nesting on cliffs, then activities such as rock climbing are prohibited during the courtship and nesting period. Highlining is a version of slacklining, but is carried out at a fair height above the ground. So, similar to tightrope walking, but a tensioned webbing tape is used instead of a rope. On Malabar Headland, the highliners were intending to set up a tape right on top of the nesting site. But in this case, it is at present well out of the nesting period. However, one of the adult birds seems to use the nesting site as its territory base – for roosting and eating. So the highlining if carried out there, could make the bird leave that site. This could mean a successful nesting site could be lost. Not a good outcome.
While we were discussing these issues. No Peregrine Falcons were around. But we could see their signs – in particular white streaks from their excrement. The highliners left in the early afternoon. After I came back from a short wander to other parts of the headland, I saw the resident Peregrine Falcon in one of its usual perches on the cliffs. This was a few metres below where the highliners were intending to set up their line.
The Peregrine Falcon stayed in the same perch for the two hours I remained on the headland – and I was not able to get any photos of it in flight.
Here are a few photos from the day –
