It must be getting near the end of the season now to observe and photograph the juvenile Peregrine Falcons. The last trip had been worthwhile, so I was keen to make another visit. Again I was joined by Sue. Our visit was on one of the rare Sundays that the eastern section of the National Park is open to visitors during the normal hours of the day.
It turned out to be relatively quiet compared to many other recent visits. I am particularly after photos of both the juvenile Peregrine Falcons flying together and interacting in the air. This time, we only saw one of the juveniles flying at a time.
We met as usual at Maroubra Beach and then walked out towards Boora Head. We soon spotted both adult Peregrine Falcons perched on the cliffs, but they did not seem too keen to fly. At about 10:30 am, the female went for a flight.
And at the same time, one of the juveniles was flying –
The female settled on this perch and stayed sitting there a fair while.
At ll:15 she went for a short flight.
Then she perched close to where she had been before.
She seemed pretty settled –
About an hour later, the adult male flew past.
The female did not stir –
We saw the male again around 2:45, when it landed on this ledge –
At about 3 pm one of the juveniles arrived, and it seemed to have some baggage. Its talons had caught some vegetation.
It did some nice flying – but only for about 5 minutes. About 5 minutes later an adult flew past –
And a juvenile did some more flying a few minutes later (about 3:15 pm) –
We didn’t see any more flying after this. We waited for another hour and half or so, then slowly walked back towards Maroubra Beach. Near the park entrance, we saw another raptor. It was a Black-shouldered Kite –
It was hovering, hunting for food. It was a juvenile. It slowly came closer and then headed towards Magic Point.
Then as it flew back towards the Rifle Range, we saw it had been joined by a juvenile Peregrine Falcon. Would a battle begin?
They did fly around together for a while, but then a second (juvenile) Black-shouldered Kite arrived. Probably a sibling to the first one.
The Peregrine Falcon then seemed to vanish as the two Kites flew together.
This was a nice finish to our visit. Again – thanks to Sue for company on the day.