The average sitting time for a Brown Falcon is around four weeks. It takes about another four weeks for the young to grow sufficiently to move about.

I had no idea, other than a wild guess, as to when she first laid and began the business of incubating the eggs, so a number of visits over the the weeks didn’t reveal any activity.
I also only had, at best, a vague understanding of where the nest was, high up, in the Umbrella pine. I also had no effort to get closer, or ‘sneak up’ on her. So distance work with my binos was the order of the day(s).

In the end, I had narrowed down the area to one small ‘umbrella’ that she chose to approach by landing in the neighbouring tree, then hopping on to a close branch, then slipping to the nest tree, and disappearing among the twisted branches of the pine, and… was gone.

One morning, as I went past, finally I heard the whimpering cries of the young ones calling for attention. Not particularly loud, so they still had a way to go.
A few days passed to the next visit, and there they were. Two young Falcons. Now ‘branchers’ Moving about on the top of the pine, still covered in patches of down, and preparing their wings for the big job ahead.

On the next visit, they were both on the move about the tree. One, seemed just that bit more adventurous, and on the day I was there it had managed to scramble through nest tree and climb on to a branch from the next tree that had grown into the first tree. It skipped along the branch, still not ready to fly but certainly on the move.

It arrived at the far end of the second tree. Foiled.
There was a 15-20m gap to the next tree. It sat on the highest clump of pine and gazed down at all the activity below. The Finches and Silvereyes were busy feeding their own young from the grasses and bushes on the ground level.

Next time I visited both birds were hard at work on wing practice.
On the day, there was a stiff wind blowing and as they flapped and ‘wind surfaced’ while clinging on to the pine needles they would raise up and down like kids on a trampoline.

It wouldn’t be long before they left the home tree and made it out into the big world.

Enjoy