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Verreaux's Eagle breeding
pair: the adult male was most often seen on a steep perch. The female
sometimes flew off the nest and joined him. © Deirdre Vrancken
& Callan Cohen,
www.birdingafrica.com
Verreaux's Eagle adult on
30 June 2009 on the Cape Peninsula with hatched
chick, other egg and dead Rock Hyrax © Deirdre Vrancken &
Callan Cohen, www.birdingafrica.com
Verreaux's Eagle adult on
30 June 2009 on the Cape Peninsula with hatched
chick, other egg and dead Rock Hyrax © Deirdre Vrancken &
Callan Cohen, www.birdingafrica.com
Verreaux's Eagle adult soaring
near its nest on 30 June 2009 on the Cape Peninsula.
© Deirdre Vrancken & Callan Cohen, www.birdingafrica.com
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Help
find Frodo (he's tagged as Y006)!
19 Dec 2009: Should anyone spot this
year's juvenile, Frodo, please
contact Lucia
Rodrigues immediately on 083 325 8881.
Frodo carries a yellow tag on the top of each wing
with black lettering Y006.
Frodo has left the immediate vicinity of the nest cliff below Cape
Town's Noordhoek Peak.
It’s likely he has followed the adults further along the mountain
chain when they go hunting and not returned to the nest cliff.
In previous years we have seen the young eagle along Brakkloofrand
near Glencairn.
The adults frequently follow the mountain chain towards Misty cliffs
Scarborough area to hunt.
Alternatively they also follow the mountain chain to Hout Bay.
On 19 Dec 2009 John Yeld had spotted the adult pair with Frodo flying
over the old fire lookout hill at Silvermine, overlooking the Noordhoek
valley.
On 21 Dec 2009, Lucia Rodrigues found Frodo perched and calling
continually on one of the rocky outcrops just west of this hill.
After about an hour he flew off eastwards with one of the adults
and mist blocked further views.
On 22 Dec 2009 Lucia spent several hours below this slope but didn't
see an any Black Eagles.
Mike Buckham was first to spot Frodo perched on this side of the
mountain as far back as the 26th November. This just shows how gradual
the movement away from the nest cliff i, notes Lucia Rodrigues
After
Frodo hatched...
27 July 2009: One month after
it hatched, the chick has grown a lot and its sibling never hatched!
© Deirdre Vrancken, www.birdingafrica.com
Frodo
has hatched!
Update 30 June 2009: A Verreaux's
Eagle pair has nested in the mountains of the Cape Peninsula and
their first chick of the year hatched on Monday 30 June 2009.
The adult female remained on the nest most of the time that afternoon,
preening, brooding on the remaining egg and feeding herself and
the fluffy white chick with a Rock Hyrax.
Meanwhile, the adult male perched
high on steep cliffs a few hundred meters away from the nest and
flew past several times, when the female sometimes joined him in
flight, calling mostly shortly after take-off. On one occassion,
he brought a stick to the nest. On another occassion, one of the
adults flew away with the dead Rock Hyrax and returned it back to
the nest!
Lucia
Rodrigues and her team monitor this last breeding pair on the
Cape peninsula and alerted Marje Hemp
on Sunday 29 June 2009 that the chick was about to hatch and an
observer was needed. So Callan and
Deirdre went up to observe and record
the event with pictures, video and sound recordings.
For more info on raptor research
and how to volunteer, please visit the Western Cape Raptor Research
Programme on the FitzPatrick
Institute and the Cape
Bird Club websites.
How
you can help
Look out for eagles with tags on the wings, as shown in this picture.
Carefully note the tag's number and colour. Also note where and
when you saw the eagle and what it was doing.
Then please contact Lucia
Rodrigues.
Questions and answers
Lucia Rodrigues replies
Since when have the parent birds been nesting there? How many eaglets
have they brought up successfully? How old are they?
They have been using this particular nest since 2004 and have raised
a chick every single year since then. This chick is therefore their
sixth consecutive chick. We have no way of knowing how old the eagles
are.
How can we help?
We want people to get back to us if they see the tagged juveniles
- such as Bladen, Canute and Echo.
What will the new eaglet's name
be?
Frodo.
The second chick has probably already hatched, normally about 3
days after the first chick.
What prey items do they feed
on apart from dassies?
This particular pair also feeds on Mongoose, Guinea Fowl, pigeon
(probably taken from another raptor) and Golden Mole.
Why did one of the adults fly away from the nest with the Rock
Hyrax?
Not sure why the female flew off the nest with the dassie and then
back on again. Perhaps to feed on it herself away from the nest?
She would not have to do this to protect the prey from the male.
On the nest the female reigns supreme. She would simply mantle the
prey as witnessed on Sunday when the male flew onto the nest.
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