In the afternoon, I visited the sea cliffs to photograph a young family of Peregrine Falcons. Three chicks had recently fledged.
I arrived on the cliffs in the early afternoon, and had my lunch and watched to see what was going on. Well it was not much. No sign of any Peregrines. Another bird photographer was around and he told me had had earlier seen three juveniles that had fledged.
I then saw a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo suddenly veer off its course, and then I saw why. An adult Peregrine falcon was flying at it. Once the birds had settled down, I moved along the cliffs a bit to another vantage point.
Then I saw the adult female flying.
And then it saw me. It obviously thought I was a threat and dived at great speed towards me.
Peregrine Falcons do this if you are too close to their nests, This was not the case here, but I assumed I was too close to her chicks. She came round for another dive –
And then she did some very fast flying along the cliffs.
And back around for another pass.
I moved away from this spot, and went back to the first lookout. Some more bird photographers had arrived.
After a bit more waiting, a juvenile started flying my way.
It was not a confident flyer, and tried to land on the frond of a palm.
I then spotted two more juveniles on the clifftop further along.
Their mother was on guard duty nearby.
Things had settled down. Out to sea were some passing whales. They were all very distant.
Then the adult female went for another flight.
The female landed on the cliffs, and was being dive bombed by Welcome Swallows! She didn’t stay in that position for very long.
Then it was time for the juveniles to do some more flying.
It is interesting that when there are three chicks, two often fly together and the third seems like an outsider. It is amazing to see these young birds fly together.
And they did some close contact flying – this is how they learn their skills.
Then their mother arrived with the remains of some food. Perhaps she was trying to induce the juveniles to grab the food mid air.
She turned and flew along the cliffs with her offering.
One of the juveniles flew after her.
Then the adult male arrived with a lot more substantial prey.
These young seem overjoyed to get a feed.
The young are feeding and their father flies back. His job is done for the time being.
And it’s time for me to head home.