Month: May 2026

Over two weeks out of the nest, both of the young Falcons were getting the hang of working on the ground.
I’m not sure if it’s planned by the female, -does she have some way of telling?- but the young crickets and grasshoppers were also emerging and giving the young birds both plenty of foraging practice and also some high quality food.
The adult food supply chain was now reduced to only occasional top-ups.

They were also beginning to explore out beyond their home zone. And each day we found them working in different parts of the paddocks.

One morning while walking in, scanning the usual resting spots, there was no sign of the birds. We stopped on the trackside and looked through the trees. Not a feather.

We were just about to move on and consider our next move, when a rolling cackle came from just behind. I turned around and there was Max sitting on a rock at the edge of the track. Hiding in plain sight. I’d been so busy looking ‘up’ that I’d missed him so close. After introductions, I moved around a tree to get off the track and give him some space. He sat.

A couple of bike riders came down the track toward us. Max sat, then gazed at them, and decided it was too much of a risk and he took to wing down the track and over their heads. They didn’t seem to look up or recognise a falcon had just flown past them. I doubt they even saw him.

The grasshoppers provided quite a bit of entertainment, and the young birds quickly became adept at chasing them and pinning them to the ground. It became quite frantic on a few occasions, and suddenly, as I peered through the viewfinder a falcon would rush toward me, growing bigger and bigger in the lens.

I’ve included two shots of Max dropping down from a building to see what Mary was doing. The interesting thing is the frames are about 1/10th of a second apart. But if you look carefully you’ll see that he has changed the entire shape of the wing to match the job of landing. I knew birds have control of the wing feathers, but he seems to have been able to fold them up in a special setting to whiffle from the building.

Enjoy

I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
Wind Hover: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Life for recently fledged Brown Falcons is almost a laid-back affair.
Sit
Wait
Accept food
Sit.
For their first few days on the wing the young ones chose to work from a stack of old logs. It provided shelter, some softer pine-needles to rest on, and the security of a sheltered position.
Mum, would on schedule bring in top up snacks, mostly in the form of snake. I had never realised how many snakes must be in the surrounding paddocks, but the male, (I named him Ophiuchus, after the Greek mythological “Snake Handler”), seemed to have not problems finding them, and in decent size.

Rabbits, and young ground birds, perhaps Brown Quail, and Pipits also were on the list. The female would also bring in the occasional mouse.

What was interesting to note, was as the days went on, the food supply slowly dropped off. The young would now have to learn one of their big lessons. Ground Hunting.

Enjoy.

For a larger view, click on the photo.