The falcons are back, or some of them

THE FALCONS, or at least the vanguard of the colony of Amur falcons that spend the summer here in Vryheid, has returned. And it seems to be a case of “better late than never”.

The birds migrate every year to and from their breeding grounds in eastern Asia – Mongolia, northern China and Siberia – and they usually arrive in Vryheid during the last week of November to the end of the first week in December.

This year they have been late.

The whole Vryheid colony of, maybe, 4,000 to 7,000 birds does not arrive all at once on the same day, but this year there was no definite sign of the first batch until Friday, December 11, when about 30 were seen at about 7:10pm roosting in the two big plane trees within the municipal swimming bath grounds in High Street. By Saturday evening the number had increased to about 120 birds at the roost.

They left Vryheid later than usual this year, and one has to wonder if these changes are in any way related to climate change. In the past they have left during the last week of March or the first week of April. This year they seemed to leave in batches, with the last seen on April 15. Did they stay because there was still food (goggas) in the fields and vleis? Did the warm autumn weather fool them?

These little 100-180 grams raptors will spend their days in next four months hunting “goggas” in the field, vleis and forests around Vryheid. In the evening they fly into town as the sun goes down, and ritually gather to soar silently together in the dying light.

In a few weeks there will be more than can be counted flying together before, as if from a signal, they swoop down to roost in the swimming bath’s trees. They are best seen from the pavement at the Moth Hall in High Street, depending on the weather, from about 6:45pm.

This roosting site, these swimming bath trees, was declared a Site of Conservation Significance (Site no 178) by the then Natal Parks Board in November 1997.

The birds have flown thousands of kilometres to get here, and to other towns in southern and central Africa. In 2010, a female Amur falcon was captured in Newcastle and fitted with a satellite transmitter. Her route from northern China to Newcastle showed that she flew an epic 14,500km, starting in mid-October. The route included a leg of about 3,000km across the Indian Ocean.

An addition hazard that they have had to face was that in flying from China over north-east India, they were being netted by the populace and devoured as an annual bonus protein source. Tens of thousands of birds were removed from the migration pattern and population as a result. Indeed, the declining bird numbers were noticed even in Vryheid, although, of course, there may have been other factors to account for the decline.

When this slaughter became known there was an international outcry by conservation organisations, and rapid action was implemented by Indian authorities and NGO s to bring the indiscriminate killing under control.

This action seems to have worked.

The number of falcons in Vryheid last summer seemed to have increased considerably, although they are very difficult to count. By the time they gather in the evening in town, the light is too poor to photograph them as tiny moving dots in the fading light. So numbers are “calculated guesswork”.

The birds will stay here until the end of March / beginning of April next year. They will have eaten tons of insects by then, and their presence is seen as an indication of a healthy environment.