Did you know that falcon chicks are called “eyases“? That’s a new one on me. At any rate, the four peregrine eyases at Falconcam (now named Wilbur, Dewey, Lincoln, and Rosalind) were banded this morning, their nest lined with fresh gravel, and the camera window cleaned. Go here to watch a short video of them being returned to the nest (in a cardboard box!), and hear how much noise four ticked-off eyases can make.
Here’s a screenshot. Those babies are LOUD!
If you think the eyases were loud then what did you think when the ad came on? My ears still hurt and there was no volume control.
Eyass is an old falconry term for a bird taken from the nest.
A passage bird is one trapped in early fall; it’s been on its own for a while but is still a young bird.
A hag is an adult.
The distinctions are made because they behave and are trained differently.
Ah– thank you for that!
Could not watch the banding– computer was acting up last night. Or had the hiccups. Or I know not what. 🙁
*sigh* Next time…
How would the ever-lying Duane Gish twist this as evidence for creationism?If evolution is true, then why does he exists, the troubling question for evolutionists!
I visited our local Peregrines yesterday evening. There are three eyas’s. Two are c14 days old and the third is c7 days old.They are all looking very healthy indeed and while I was there the falcon brought in a Great spotted woodpecker for dinner.
Also in falconry the female is called a falcon while the male is known as a tiercel as he is on average about a third smaller.
Eyas – funny word. In case you wondered, as I did, it’s pronounced
EYE-iss. Turns out that like falcon and tiercel, it’s from French (niais=nestling, from nid=nest).
Oh, is that another word, like “nuncle”, that’s lost its initial letter to the article: “a naias” => “an aias”? (Followed by a spelling change, of course.)
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I didn’t know that, but I knew the word, because Hamlet uses it – about the young “players” (actors) who are all the rage in the city and putting their elders out of business. Theatre injoke stuck in the middle of the play. “Little eyases,” Hamlet says, “who cry out on the top of question and are most tyrannically clapped for it.”