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About the size of a magpie. As fast as a Ferrari. And mad as hell.
Posted on Friday, January 16 @ 13:23:41 CST by webmaster
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Anonymous writes "About the size of a magpie. As fast as a Ferrari. And mad as hell.
That's how Frodo the peregrine falcon was summed up when he shot to fame in The Courier-Mail in Feburary this year.
Now the plucky peregrine, who lives slap bang in the middle of Brisbane city, is the focus of a
Courier-Mail webcam designed to give readers and insight into the breeding cycle of these unique and spectacular birds.
But back in February Frodo didn't come to our attention under the best of circumstances.
It was February and the fiery falcon had laid claim to the rooftop of one of Brisbane city's most prestigious highrise apartment buildings and was ruffling a few feathers.
His fearsome and continual swoops on anyone who ventured on to "his" roof had brought maintenance work to a halt on top of the Admiralty Towers One building.
Frodo had become a health and safety issue.
Workers needed to access the roof to check exhaust – which extracted steamy air from some of the poshest bathrooms in town – but not one of them was willing to put a steel-capped toe out there unless they could be protected from the bird.
At first residents and workers believed Frodo was an osprey or sea eagle.
But when Courier-Mail photographer Nathan Richter snapped a photograph of the mystery dive-bomber on March 5 this year, ornithologist Roy Sonnenburg quickly identified him as a peregrine falcon – the fastest animal in the world, with a swoop speed in excess of 300km/h.
No wonder those workers were scared.
Some people were demanding the bird's eviction, others welcomed this precious piece of nature into the concrete jungle of Brisbane's inner city.
National Parks and Wildlife officers were called in to assess the situation and Environment Minister Dean Wells dubbed the city's most popular high-flyer "Frodo", in reference to the Lord of the Rings: Twin Towers movie.
A compromise was reached, with workers protected by Wildlife rangers when they ventured on to the roof top.
Admiralty Towers One manager Leon Azar revealed Frodo and a lady friend had in fact been nesting on top of the building since 1999, with eggs usually laid in August.
Then stories rolled in about a couple of peregrine falcons who nested on a ledge at the Hilton Hotel in the 1990s, forcing the closure of a luxury suite until they had hatched their brood.
Experts speculated the couple may have been Frodo and his partner, with peregrine falcons known to alternate each year between several favoured nesting sites within a 1km radius.
According to rangers, Frodo had been left to protect nest while his partner was a-wandering further afield during the non-mating period.
Now "Mrs Frodo" is back, with two perfect reddish-pink eggs appearing on a pebble-strewn ledge. More nay follow, hatching in about 36 weeks.
Over the coming weeks our state-of-the-art webcam – which has been inspected and approved by Queensland National Parks and Wildlife officers – will follow the birth of a clutch of city-dwelling peregrines.
Website URL: http://thecouriermail.com.au/extras/frodocam/default.htm"
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