Donna from RFalcon caught a peek at the first hatch for Quest & Kendal early this morning!! Congratulations!!
May 8th - 2013
earlier this evening, I was able to get a few snapshots of a food delivery and get a look at the nest ledge for a few minutes while both of the adults were off incubation duties. I was able to snap a few photos from the web cam and now I’m really confused!!!
Has there been a hatch? Are two eggs gone? Is there is one or two eggs left / visible? Given the date that the first egg was laid, we should have a hatch any day now!
As I watched the resident adult female return to the nest ledge, she sure looked perplexed as she looked her eggs! Maybe one of the eggs is just starting to pip!
Hopefully, we will get another opportunity later on this evening to get another look, or early tomorrow morning before the sun gets high in the sky and floods the nest ledge with way tooooo much light for the camera to dal with!
Stay tuned, and keep watching! Send us some web can photos if you get a better look at what’s happening.
You will have to decide what you see in the photos that I snapped earlier this evening.
What do you see?
Linda
May 3rd - 2013
Despite the efforts of many on both sides of the border, the resident Niagara falls peregrines have both eluded and confused us all, (in addition to the frustration experienced from all as to just where they are actually nesting this season)!
A huge thank you to Jacquie who has been able to identify the actual nest site! While it still remains on the old OPG powerhouse wall on the Canadian side of the Niagara gorge, the peregrines have really been sneaky this year and given us all a run for the money in an effort to locate the nest site. For some unknown reason, the resident grins have decided not to nest in the same spot as in previous years. Although they have been successful in producing offspring over the past few years in this old nesting spot, they have obviously decided to change locations.
Jacquie writes:
Hi folks,
I just wanted to send you an update on the falcons at the Falls. They did not use the nest cavity this year, and for the past couple of weeks we have been trying to figure out where they are nesting. When I was there on April 30 I was pretty sure I saw the tail feathers and wingtips of an incubating falcon poking out from behind a pink board in one of the boarded up windows on the old power building, but I couldn’t be sure. I was there again on May 3 and saw the same thing, but again I wasn’t sure if it was a bird, or shadows, or some debris in the window. I had not seen any adults going into or out of that window, so I was doubting myself. However, today when I was there I saw the tail feathers again poking out from behind the pink board, and then I saw the female (I am assuming it was the female) get up and reposition herself before going back behind the board.
They were sneaky this year! But I finally confirmed my suspicions about that window. She did spend a lot of time there her first year before she chose that other window closer to where you guys installed the nest box. And they used it as a prey cache last year. I have attached photos of the window location so you can see where I am talking about. Now all we have to do is figure out when incubation began. I think the earliest report I have is Tracy Simpson’s observations from April 21, when she thought they were possibly incubating somewhere on the OPG building. But I also have reports of only one adult seen perched on the building a few times during the first week in April. So I am not sure how accurately we can estimate a hatch date. Probably the best we can do is get some watchers there to look for evidence of chick-feeding.
I’ll let you know if I have anything further to report. I hope all is well on your side! Happy falcon season!
- Jacquie Walters
I saw Voltaire feed two babies at 12:05pm. Yay!!
I just checked the camera and found two sweet little faces looking for food. The two now visible chicks waited for an adult to return with food and ate their fair share and then some. An ”unhatched as of yet” egg was in front of them that they leaned on to get a good reach forward towards the food. Where the fourth egg is we are unsure but we can confirm 2 little ones for sure.
6 Turkey Vultures just came into the territory and that was enough to get O’Connor out of the nest box and join Jack in defending the nest ledge. The TV’s were quite brazen and came right over to the building and then the chase was on. Tandem attacking by our falcons as they paired up to give them a thumping and move them out of range of the nest ledge. It was quite the sight to see!
No inuries but the TV’s got the message.
11:05 am and Jack arrived with a package of food to the nest ledge. O’Connor took it and flew over to the condo tower. Jack sat by the nest box a minute and then went into to it and not even a minute later O’Connor was back with the package in her talons and Jack jumped out and she went in.
It’s been challenging to ascertain what is going on up there this year. O’Connor is a ‘master of discretion’ and isn’t giving up anything voluntarily.
Unless she’s suddenly decided to start dining al fresco - I’d say she’s feeding something up there!
Lots of excitement yesterday as several people witnessed and heard both Jack and O’Connor taking on a pair of Red Tail Hawks who have been hanging around the towers.
Our friend Dutch Eagle Fan just caught the second hatch for Cass and Sante!!
May 1st - 2013
Shots taken through the nest box peep hole just moments after a feeding today. The young hatchlings are hardly able to keep their tiny heads upright and eyes open (and only for a few seconds), just long enough to take a thimble size portion of food from mom, then back to sleep nestled amongst each other under mom.
Despite the much milder (and MUCH warmer temperatures), Cirrus is still keeping a very tight lid on her new hatchlings! While we highly suspect that all four eggs may have hatched, we can still only confirm three hatchlings. Sleeping where you fall is the order of the day for the young hatchlings 
Mom is very quick to keep them all tucked in and covered up.
We’ll all have to wait and see until they get a little older.
Stay tuned………….
Thanks to our friend DutchEagleFan who got this great capture of the first hatchling this morning!!
