A comment from Steve Debus Shirley C —– Original Message —– From: “Steve Debus” <sdebus@une.edu.au> To: “Shirley Cook” <shirleycook@skymesh.com.au> Sent: Monday, March 30, 2015 8:56 AM Subject: RE: [Birding-Aus] Cat and Mouse Hi Shirley, Without information on plumages I’m only guessing, but it could be parent Peregrines releasing still-alive prey for dependent juveniles to catch, during the transition to independence. There has been a bit of argument about whether this behaviour is deliberate, or just incidental to parents dropping prey before hungry, boisterous juveniles ‘assault’ them for it in the air, before the adult can do the killing neck-bite. Either way, it would give the juveniles some practice at chasing, catching and killing prey. It has been observed before in bird-catching falcons. Cheers Steve —–Original Message—– From: Shirley Cook [mailto:shirleycook@skymesh.com.au] Sent: Monday, 30 March 2015 7:58 AM To: Steve Debus Subject: Fw: [Birding-Aus] Cat and Mouse Very interesting post. —– Original Message —– From: “Barney Enders” <barney1941@bigpond.com> To: <birding-aus@birding-aus.org> Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 12:34 PM Subject: [Birding-Aus] Cat and Mouse > We have a pair of Peregrines come past our high-rise occasionally and > catch > Seagulls and take them up above the 14th floor and let > > them go and then dive down on them and catch them again, they do this > several time, just playing with them or practising ??? > > Is this a normal practise for them ?? > > They then fly up onto a roof of one of the nearby high-rises to eat them > and > you can only tell which roof they are on by the feathers fluttering down > as they pluck them. > > This morning one flew past with a squawking Sea Gull 20 feet from where I > was sitting on the balcony. (Never have the camera when you want it) > > Got some photos of them eating, first the biggest one and then it let the > smaller one feed. > > > > A Currawong came up to close to show his displeasure and the Peregrine > chased him down at high speed till he crashed into the low bushes. > > Diving from 14 stories high the Currawong was no match and was making a > fair > bit of noise on the way down, don’t think he will do that again. > > > > Years ago I had a lot to do with the then called “Fisheries and Wildlife” > regarding the Peregrines laying soft shelled eggs due to the D. D. T. used > > on farm land. > > I saw many pairs but never saw them doing this although they were not > feeding young ones as none were hatching. > > > > Another interesting find yesterday was a Bush Stone-curlew living in a > underground car park at a Labrador shopping centre, has been there on and > > off for two years just walks out of the road of cars driving out and > casually walks up the stairs to go and feed returning each morning. > > > > Barney > > > > > >
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