VRYHEID’s colony of Amur falcons, at least the last “squadron” of it, left us on Friday, April 17. The huge colony of birds, estimated to number maybe 10,000 birds, spent summer in and around Vryheid and is now flying to the northern hemisphere where they will breed. Their breeding grounds are in northern China, Manchuria and Siberia.
The birds usually leave Vryheid within the first 10 days of April (they arrive here at the end of November or beginning of December). This year they left late, in fact the latest for close to two decades. Whether it was the mild autumn weather or still plenty of food supply (insects etc) in the surrounding fields, is not known.
They seemed to leave in batches, and by Wednesday evening, April 15, only about 300 were seen preparing to roost in the swimming bath trees in High Street. The next evening, Thursday, only about 30 birds were spotted. On Friday, the trees were silent.
