Malabar Headland – 26 September 2022

After my week away at Hay, I was keen to visit Malabar Headland again to check the status of the nesting Peregrine Falcons. On this visit I met up with Sue at Maroubra Beach and we walked out together.

We had an interesting visit. From the behaviour of the Peregrine Falcons, it looks like their eggs have hatched with it great news.

Some other news was this massive cliff collapse –

Hundreds of tonnes of rock have fallen off the cliff between Magic Point and Boora Point – not that far from Dead Mans Gulch. I am trying to find out when it happened and have been surprised to find no mention of it in recent Sydney news. I would have thought the noise would have been heard from a long way off.

And for some birds we saw on the walk in –

New Holland Honeyeater

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Another view of the landslide –

Arriving at the Peregrine falcon nesting sight, we spotted one of the birds, the male, priced high up.

While we were watching the male, the female suddenly urned up on lower ledge.

The male was sill on its ledge.

The female was calling out to the male.

The female got no reaction from the male. I was busy with my camera ready to photograph the male if it took off, but it didn’t. Instead the female took off and flew back to the nest. A few minutes later the female returned.

It started calling again.

This time the male did look like it was going to take off.

But it then settled down again.

But about five minutes later it did take off.

The female remained on its perch.

After about five minutes it took off and flew to the nest.

The male returned briefly. I think it must have been in he nest.

It didn’t stay long and soon flew away. we thought it was off hunting for prey.

Then we noticed that a beautiful small bush growing out of a crack had recently been broken off. This is terrible vandalism! I had used this bush as a foreground in landscape photos a few times.

Out at Sea we could see a lot of Shearwaters circling around some baitfish.

And we spotted a Humpback Whale.

After about three quarters of an hour away, the female returned, looking a bit wet.

It preened for a fair while, nearly an hour.

While we were watching Valerie and two visiting friends of hers arrived and stayed for half an hour. They were fortunate as they saw the best action of the day.

The female took off at 12:15 pm.

It flew back into the nest.

The male appeared again about ten minutes later. It had no prey. It stopped for a few minutes on  the high ledge then took off and did sone nice fly pasts.

Then the male flew off to resume its hunting.

Meanwhile, some other photos –

Superb Fairy-wren

Humpback Whales

At 1:20 pm the female went on a short flight out and back along the cliffs.

A Little Black Cormorant was hunting for fish below –

And here is a Copper Skink.

A little after 2:30 pm, I was just heading into the scrub to look for more lizards, when I heard the call of the male Peregrine Falcon. It had flown in fast with prey and landed on a ledge. The female heard the call and flew out straight away to join the male.

It picked up the food and didn’t waste any time. It flew back to the nest. We assumed it was taking it back to feed chicks.

It transferred the food from its beak to its talons as it flew.

The male now rested.

But it didn’t rest for long. I missed its take off.

So back to the lizards, Here is a Water Skink –

And while we waited we saw some more Humpback Whales –

About an hour later, at 3:30 pm the male arrived again looking quite wet.

It soon flew onto another ledge and then started preening.

It was time for us to head back for home. We walked via the WWII ruins to Malabar. On the way we looked for Sun Orchids in flower. We saw a lot of buds and some fertilised flowers but none actually out.

It had been another great day. Thanks to Sue for her company.