Melbourne quake rocks squawking mother falcon
Despite scare, bird returns to its nest
Amagnitude 6.0 earthquake startled the residents of Melbourne yesterday morning — including one rare peregrine falcon mother shaken from her nest, full of eggs.
A live video stream of the nest, tucked into a ledge on an office building in the city’s central business district, caught the moment the temblor struck, causing the spooked falcon to leap from her nest to the edge of the building, and then dive off it with a squawk.
One of the biggest
The quake was one of Australia’s biggest on record and damaged some buildings in the country’s second-largest city, though there were no reported injuries. The video was provided by Mirvac Group, property manager for the 34-storey building known as the Optus Centre. A breeding pair of falcons have nested there since 1991, according to Mirvac’s website for the building. The 367 Collins Street Falcons Live Stream was started four years ago by the Victorian Peregrine Project, one of Birdlife Australia’s Raptor Group initiatives. Despite the initial scare, she returned to the nest, resuming her crouch over the eggs.