Incubation continues at the Sheraton Centre with Rhea Mae and Tiago in attendance.
Hatching should begin around May 19th.
Everything appears to be on schedule.
I stopped in at Duncan Mills on my way home and confirmed through scope view the first chick has arrived. I also caught an image of food arriving.
April 30th - 2015
Ok, this is a record no mater how you shake it out!! (NO pun intended)!! This is NOT a photo-shop gag!
As a result of the territorial battles that resulted in the death of the long standing resident adult male at Holcim, the new sub-adult resident male on site wasn’t wasting any time in his efforts to create his own family,,, (nor is the resident adult female it would seem given the second clutch of 4 eggs that she has now laid)!!!! NOW EIGHT EGGS in total are visible in the nest!!
The first clutch of 4 eggs (seen in the photo as being the much lighter in colour, bleached out by the sun while they were not being attended to during the territorial battles and the lack of a support male to help the resident female with her full time incubation duties) still remains,,, among the newly laid (much more vibrant rusty brown coloured eggs) that the resident adult female has just recently produced. This is a second clutch of 4 eggs!!!
We highly suspect that the first clutch of 4 egg are addled, (and if they were in fact fertile in the first place), the embryo’s have likely long since died as a result of the eggs being allowed to get too cold. The unhatched chicks simply die as a result of cold and hyperthermia. It doesn’t take much of a temp drop given the small mass / size of the peregrines egg. As for the second clutch of 4 eggs, you never know, they just maybe fertile, as the new resident sub-adult male on site just maybe old enough to impregnate the female and cause fertilization!
That being said, take a close look at the photo,, (unless the resident adult female expels or consumes some of the addled eggs, making some room), you can see the daunting task ahead of the pair trying to successfully cover and incubate any of the eggs given their total mass, (and the lack of sufficient nesting sub-straight and a much deeper nesting bowl that would help contain this many eggs) is going to be very difficult indeed!
Sadly, in this case, this particular elevation at Holcim is not one that we can easily get too from the ground, to simply just add a nest tray and additional nesting sub-straight without a very large costly telescopic or crane lift type equipment. While it is true that we have installed both nest trays and nest boxes at much higher elevations over the past year at several other OPG nest sites, the very expensive lift equipment was at the time, already on site at these other locations and at hand with operators available for us to utilize them.
While the female peregrine is much larger than the male, (and in this case, she is much more experienced),, even under the existing conditions and current situation, trying to successfully contain and incubate 8 eggs will be a daunting task for her,,, (let along for the much smaller, less experienced male)!!
A huge thank you to Armando and Stephanie for the great photos and updates!! Great work indeed folks!!!
Stay tuned……………………..
April 30th-2015
Congratulations are in order for sure to both Burlington, al the great folks at the lift bridge and PWGSC, as we have just received great news from the PWGSC and the guys at the Burlington Lift Bridge. The most recent photos taken on April 30th through the peephole in the backside of the nest box clearly show that two of the four eggs have hatched!
The most recent observation and photo updated, also confirmed what we had all suspected , but were unable to confirm, in that there was in fact 4 eggs!
Fingers crossed that the other two eggs are successful in hatching!
I was watching the camera at Duncan Mills this morning as Quest is due for a hatch any day now. She is so incredibly restless that her gravel picking almost ended in a somersault. At this time of the morning the cam images are at their most clear and we can now confirm that there is a third egg in the clutch. Quest entered the nest box moments ago with food and attempted to feed one of the eggs. A chick may have started to pip and is singing which would encourage that first delivery of food… …a little early but so sweet to see. I didn’t see any white fluff or anyone taking food from her and I can see only three eggs in the view. No signs of an egg shell having been moved so my guess is that a little one will emerge possibly today or overnight so get to the cam folks, its coming!!!
Thank you so much to Stephanie and Armando for your observations at the Holcim facility of Caspian and her bid to reclutch with the new male on site. Bruce Massey and I have been going down and doing site checks from Avonhead Road as often as we can since Storm was recovered deceased not far from the site. Here is a few of the notable observations we have witnessed.
April 7th - a new male is spotted at the Holcim facility with Caspian. He is an Ontario banded male with yellow tape on his USFW and the most distinctive feature is that he is immature. He is still donning juvenile plumage as his molt into subadult phase has yet to begin. He is seen here until Saturday April 11th.
April 18th - there is a new male on site with Caspian and he is in adult plumage. He has a silver USFW band and a solid black recovery band. Caspian is more accepting of this male and is not aggressively chasing him away. Both birds are visiting the old nest box located on an east ledge in the heart of the plant. She is entering and scraping while he has yet to enter the box. Neither bird is incubating the eggs laid while Caspian was paired with Storm.
April 20th - Caspian and the new male were witnessed copulating and there has been no further sighting of the immature male. Both are seen at the old nest box and at the most current nest ledge on the south side of the tall silos.
April 25th - Bruce Massey had the opportunity to get a partial band number off of the male. The top letter is an R and there is a double digit on the bottom. The first digit is a 4. A bird is spotted at the old nest box and it is not Caspian but an immature FEMALE. She is banded but way too distant to tell color or numbers with any certainty. The new resident adult male is stooping her and aggressively chasing her. When he broke off the attacks at the nest box and flew over to rest on the current nest ledge, the immature female attempted to join him there. Caspian (confirmed by band) came out of nowhere and actively chased her. It is the last time we have seen the immature female on site. New behavior from the male included food transfers to Caspian and defense of territory. Even though they both went into the current nest ledge on the south side of the tall silos for brief periods, neither bird was incubating or out of sight for any length of time.
April 28th - Incubation behavior has begun and a new egg was confirmed by Armando (thank you so much!). I suspected that an egg had arrived based on observations of the current nest ledge. Only one bird at a time is visible and when one adult disappears onto the ledge it is down and out of sight for extended periods. Copulation continues on this day so the clutch is in the making but not complete.
April 30th - From 11:00am to 1:30pm Caspian was down on the nest ledge incubating. The male was active but did not come close enough or long enough for a full band read. I can confirm the solid black recovery band and the R over 4 ?. The second digit remains unknown. The adult male was incredibly busy. He chased off a third peregrine that was not looking for a serious fight, brought in a pigeon for the pair to share and attacked a Turkey vulture floating through. He took over incubation for Caspian at 2pm.
It looks like there is still hope for a hatch this year at the Holcim site and we will continue to work on identifying the new male with Caspian. Again, a huge thank you to Armando and the staff at Holcim for all of their help tracking this seasons changes and progress.
I was on site on Tuesday and was able to confirm that Haven and her mate are currently incubating three eggs. I clearly saw all three during a changeover but it happened so fast that confirmation of the male’s identity was impossible. I was able to see though that he has a silver USFW and a solid black recovery band on his left leg which is consistent with Malik. Congratulations to Canada Square on three eggs.