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