Bill and I spent a couple of hours at the Lift Bridge yesterday and I’m very happy to confirm that we were able to see two little white heads. Are there more? We will keep watching. Mom was trying to shelter the little ones from the hot noon day sun, but they still managed to escape to peer over the edge.
These images captured of the web cam around 7:45p.m. It appears a quick game of twister before dinner… left talon green, right wing red….
Incubation continues and since we have only a guess as to when full incubation started, we can only estimate a hatch date. So daily viewing will continue until confirmation can be made to the status of the nest.
The day’s heat kept the second out of my view and in the shade of another building. Red Tail hawks are usually out mid-day and were seen the past few days over Queen’s Park. While I was watching, one peregrine appeared on the ledge and I waited wondering when the peregrine will see the Red tail. It wasn’t long and the adult male peregrine was off towards the intersection of College and University. Don’t know what the outcome was, as they both flew out of my line of sight.
King St birds are growing fast, and since they were hatched on the natural sub-scrape, they are free to move around. Today being one of the warmest days so far this spring, the chicks head for the shade of the pillar. Good for them, but it may be a little more difficult for viewers to see them. But reaassured, they are there, you just have to keep watching.
In this image you can see them near the pillar and the two unhatched eggs still in the nest bowl.
Early morning visit and the chicks had just been fed, rather stuffed. You can see the crop bulging from the chest area. They appear to be healthy and are active and becoming more mobile. I’m sure it won’t be long before the other two hop out of the nest tray and join the sibling.
Linda captured some great high quality video of the Toronto Sheraton peregrine chicks feeding yesterday. We hope gather enough support through donations to upgrade the nest camera at the Sheraton Centre to give us a high quality feed. Until then, we have dedicated volunteers capturing incredible video like the one below.
What a beautiful day, and finally the little ones are little more active today. Myself and other volunteer were observing this morning and we believe that we may have two females in this trio. We’ll have to wait and see at the Banding on May 28th.
We watched as the chicks interacted with each other. One appeared to be trying to feed the other until it had difficulty with the leftovers in the nest tray. There wasn’t any meat on those bones for any of them. Rhea is very attentive and watches every move. When the little climbed out of the box, Rhea was there to make sure it didn’t go out of bounds. I could sit for hours and watch this family. Please see my photos.
The 4 eggs that were once here (for a second time this year) are now only 1. Not sure how the 1st one went missing but I saw the female consume the 2nd one that went missing. This is way too wierd for me to comprehend, but I’m hoping she must have known that the egg she ate was not fertilized because when she ate it, the yoke & white were clearly visible. I think if it was a viable egg that there would have been an embryo or something solid in the egg. So to this point, she has 1 egg left & is on it constantly. We are hoping that this egg will eventually hatch. Never a dull moment here in Port Colborne! Mostly frustrating ones.
We have finally been able to get a decent photo of the hatchlings during a shift change as the resident adult female took a brake from her brooding activities.
Very cute indeed!
The banding of the new Toronto Sheraton Peregrines has been scheduled for 10am on Friday May 28th. It is to take place on the 43rd floor, in the Pinnacle room. The event is exciting, and everyone is welcome. You will see the this years new peregrine chicks banded, named and learn a bit more about Peregrines in the process.
Come see the new chicks up close before they learn to fly! (photo from last years banding)
Matt.