!!! Niagara Falls birds have been found, and there has been a hatch!
June 23, 2011 - Niagara Falls
Mark Nash Reports:
A big thank you to Jacquie Walters for her report and John Shiposki for his great photos from New York State for getting this great news and fantastic photos to us!
Jacquie writes:
Hi Mark,
I am one of Connie Adams’ seasonal technicians out of the New York DEC office in Buffalo. I have been watching the Niagara Falls nest site from Terrapin Point all spring and am happy to report that you have peregrine hatchlings! This was a very late nest. I am pretty sure the female is still “Diamond” from Ohio. She is a banded sub-adult anyway, still has quite a bit of brown on her. She laid her first egg back in April. There was a fight with an interloping pair that I watched for three hours on 4/12. After that, on 4/14, I saw one egg in one of the windows she had been frequenting. This egg never received much attention from her. It sat in the scrape un-incubated until the week of 5/22 when one of our volunteers reported seeing two eggs in the nest. When I went there on 6/6 I counted three eggs, and on 6/10 I counted 4. One of these was the first egg that by now was old and white-colored. There must have been four there previously, but I just couldn’t see them all, because when I went there on Monday 6/20 there was a hatchling in the nest along with 2 eggs! It really was one of the best feelings seeing that little white ball of fluff in there. I didn’t see that old, white first egg, but maybe it was behind the others or underneath her. She was pretty tight on the nest the whole time I was there and I only got good looks under her when she got up to change positions.
The male is not banded, though John Shiposki, who has been photographing the NF PEFAs for many years, is certain that it is the same male since 2003. We have no way to be sure, obviously, but John recognizes him based on some feather patterning and behaviour. He does seem to be an experienced male PEFA. He kept trying to get the female into the old nest hole under that window during early spring, but she seemed to prefer the window “box” instead.
I emailed Anne Yagi last week, so she probably already told you about this nest, but I just wanted to send you an email to let you know what has been going on there. I will be heading up there tomorrow morning (the best time to get a clear view into the scrape) to see if all the eggs have hatched. This site has been my favourite to watch. They are so observable and it has been fun finding all their favourite perches and food caches. I have even seen the male taking baths in the old spillway on the bottom of the OPG builing! He wades into the water up to his abdomen and dunks his whole head in, shaking the water down his body. It is a funny thing to watch a Peregrine taking a bath like a robin or a crow.
Let me know if you need any other info. I attached pictures of the nest location and the hatchling. Hope to see you on banding day!
- Jacquie Walters
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