On Monday I had the privilege of banding a NZ Falcon youngster named Jerry, it was originally named Gerry after the landowners Father but as it now appears to be a girl it had a name change. After a 2 hour drive we were met by Don the land owner and had a crossing of the upper Rakaia River. Fortunately in his big 4x4 which could cope with the journey.
After lunch we had 30min journey to the nest site which is underneath an old hay feeder. Amazingly the space that the nest is in is only about 24cm in this space the pair had constructed a substantial nest. This is unusual as most books state that the nest is usually just a scrape with little or no nesting material. Perhaps Falcons don't read these books.
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| The nest is under the left end of this old hay feeder. |
The banding party was a bit of a family affair, Don my nephew, the landowner, two of my sisters, Margaret, Don's mother, another sister known as "Birdy Bev" and myself. When Don first found the nest, which was the result of very good observation skills and detective work, it contained 3 newly laid eggs.
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| 16 Nov - newly laid eggs |
When he next checked the nest a month later there was a newly hatched chick. No sign of the other 2 eggs, possibly broken or removed by the parents.
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| 17 Dec - newly hatched chick |
Ten days later he again checked it and there was a fat looking downy youngster.
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| 26 Dec - little fatty. |
Photographing the nest was a matter of a quick look under thrusting his arm under the hay feeder taking a photo then getting away as quick as he could before the extremely protective mother could make a direct hit.
The banding went extremely well, Don got the chick and we retired to the protection of the Landcruiser cab where we could band in relative peace.
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| 10 Jan - Don making the hand over. |
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| 10 Jan - Jerry the Falcon at approximately 24 days of age |
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| Jerry with her new bling |
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