Tough News

Well today started out with such celebration, having two of the youngsters fledge within 90 minutes of each other. Sadly, Macy took a long, strong flight off the Beehive and crashed into the Key Bank building around lunchtime, dying on impact we believe. Here's the news I have from Bob after talking with him tonight:

- The first bird out of the nest was nicknamed "Primo", who landed on the admin building and somewhat hung out on the north end until sometime this evening when he flew over to the west side of the tall church office buiilding, ending up on the ground and was banded. Bob is fairly sure Primo is a male, but because the male band was a smidge tight, he chose to band him with a female band (females normally have larger leg bones than males and is how they can be told apart). Primo was taken up to the top of the Beehive around 9pm and when I was talking to Bob, he was still there 'dinking around' and hopefully will stay put for the night.

-The second bird out of the nest was nicknamed "Macy" who after a very strong first flight ended up over on the ledge above the Macy's sign at City Creek shopping center just across South Temple street. Bob said that mid-morning Macy flew over to the area above Kneaders and got herself down in the shade where Bob was able to throw a towel over her and get her inside for banding. Definately female. They then took her to the top of the Beehive for release. She was put out on the west side and not long after Bob got down to the first floor he heard she had taken off heading back to the area where she was earlier. She flew straight in to the Key Bank building.

I am waiting for a small writeup from Bob with his comments on today. As with last year, Bob's motto is 'we need to worry about the living'. The question does arise, whether there is anything we can do to help or prevent this type of thing from happening in the future. The truth is that the parents insist on nesting in the downtown area. Before this nest was provided, they were attempting to nest on parts of the building that were even more dangerous for the eyases. Thus, the box was installed to at least give them a chance at a successful hatch and fledge. Their natural settings would be granite cliffs which could be just as tough for young birds to learn to fly. Bob is fairly sure that bird number 3 will fledge in the morning. Let's hope for a great first flight and soft landing. I welcome your comments.

Macy about 8:15 am today after first flight to the Macy's building.

Fledge 1 AND 2 Woot!!!

Wow, two fledges this morning and we are so fortunate that Skygirlblue caught both on video. First bird left box at 5:40 and second approx. 6:50am. If I have that wrong, let me know. I talked with Bob and he said was not there for the first one but when he arrived the bird was sitting on the north side of the administration building across from the nest (the building you see out of the box window) and the second bird flew across the stree to the new shopping center and is currently perched on a low ledge around the area where you walk into City Creek Center off of South Temple.

Meal Videos

A couple great videos of feeding time.

Kids June 25

I took a couple photos tonight (like 100) but these give a good idea of what is going on at the nest. Its hot down there! This will be the last I can take until I get back from vacation. Hopefully some of you will take photos for me while I am gone. Be back July 2.

You can see kids, Dad (flying), Mom on the right side of picture, on corner plucking feathers from some prey should brought in.

Testing out the wings.



They are paying close attention to parents flights and locations.

The View June 25

I am downtown today, so I will be taking some photos of the kids from outside the box and posting later tonight. Here's just a quick one I captured as I walked to work ~  zoomed and cropped, so not super clear but oh its fun to see them from this perspective after watching the cams for weeks.

Hang Tight Kids!

Its a windy day here in SLC but the kids insist on hanging next to the edge of the box. My guesses right now is that we have female/male/female sitting there looking at the happenings outside their nest.

Another Meal Video

Crazy kids! You can see dad arrive with a snack, followed by mom. One kid grabs it but its soon stolen by another. Once the other two realize who has it, they go to back of box to attempt a steal ~ you can see the one who has the food 'mantle' over it. Thanks Skyblugirl for this video!

Evening Videos

I captured two videos tonight. The first, the kids are enjoying the live music coming somewhere from the grounds. Their colors are pretty in the fading light. The second video is after the cams turn to black and white and just as a meal is brought it. What a ruckus!!

T - Minus 10 Days and Counting

Below is a photo of the youngsters this evening plus a comment that Bob Walters left earlier today that I thought you'd all like to read. Any guesses on gender yet? I say that middle one is a female and probably first hatched.

Tuesday, June 19 - It's become a free-for-all (credit Bert R. with that one-word description) in the nest box! The kids are racing along the length of the box and vigorously flapping their wings. The adults are making drops of prey and it's every bird for him/herself. Any guesses as to what gender(s) are represented? Of late, they all look same-sized to me and a few other SLC PEREGRINE CAM watchers. I watched a reported (thanks to John O.!) drop by the adult male this afternoon (3:09 p.m.) of a small bird which was snatched and transported to the south end of the box where feeding on it by a lone, lucky/clever kid ensued almost immediately. Nonetheless, with time, all three eyases had taken parts of the delivered meal. About the time of the described drop of food, John O. noted that the unhatched, entire egg had disappeared and eggshell pieces were discerned upon the pea gravel and some consumed by one, or more of the hungry youngsters. By my count, two young-of-the year are 30 days old and one is 28 days old. I'm estimating that the 2012 SLC Peregrine Falcon Hellweek event will begin as early as June 29 unless, of course, something happens before that date including an accidental slip from the edge of the front board on the nest box. RW

99 Degrees!

This picture could look pretty ominous but it hit 99 degrees today! This posture during naptime helps them keep cool. Wow, they are getting big! Below is a comment Bob Walters left today:

The kids are between 13 and 15 days old. It may now be possible to see: white body down, feather development on the wings (dark gray primary and secondary sheath development), bare featherless areas between the feather tracts in the spine and shoulder areas and the first to form feathers, the tail feathers. Also, wild guess based on size: 2 females and 1 male, or 1 female and 2 males. We'll have to continue to monitor relative size before we begin to feel certain as to gender. - Bob

Cameras Down

In case anyone is wondering, the server for the falcon cameras is down. Bob has emailed those who handle them but since its the weekend, we may not have cameras until Monday morning.

Photos May 29

Hi folks, Mike P provided me with some excellent photos of the tiercel (male, dad) from his window in the big bronze building on the cornere of State and South Temple (Eagle Gate?). He also sent some cam shots he grabbed of feedings. I am still wondering if this male might be a new mate for her, not the same as last year. He seems quite confused and not quite with it as far as parenting, which the tiercel last year didn't seem to struggle with. Comments,.. Bob?

I am pasting in some comments I received from Bob Walters today about the difference between tiercel (male) and falcon (female):

I believe that the photos of the tiercel have led me to another clue to distinguishing one adult from the other. If you look at Mike's pic's, note that the area directly above the tiercel's bill is black, while in several screen captures that I have in hand (you too, I imagine) the falcon displays a white patch above the bill. So, the falcon is marked by the white spot, or patch above the bill and the buffy-tipped tail.

Mike's photos help to distinguish in other ways as well. I believe that the tiercel's malars are more "rounded" than the falcons. Her malars are more "pointed". The tiercel's legs and feet are definitely the orange-yellow variety ... the falcon's legs and feet are more of a lemon-yellow color.

The play of events on the next four pictures is as follows according to what Mike saw:

1. Falcon (female) screamed from ledge (calling for food maybe?) She gives up and leaves. Shortly after Tiercel flies in with prey, which you see in this pic.

2. Tiercel feeding, then falcon flies in with prey.

3. Falcon takes over feeding. Tiercel leaves with his leftovers.

4. Good shot of falcon with the white above the nose as Bob pointed out.

Last Egg a Dud?

I think its about time to give up on the last egg hatching. From my post entries you can see that this light colored egg was the third layed and if it was going to hatch, should have been fairly soon right after the 4th layed hatching. In the picture below, this light colored egg is out of the 'scrape' where the parents would incubate it. What do you think, Bob? The good news is that the three hatchlings are growing and look great!

Video of Second Hatch

Thanks to BCAW members for this capture of hatching.

First Hatch!

Woot!! I got the first email of someone seeing eggshells at 8:30 this morning, so it was sometime before that. Here is a screen capture from Burt of mom feeding.

Hatching to Begin Very Soon!

Get ready! Hatch days are coming up this week, possibly beginning Sunday or Monday. We should have an egg hatch about every other day, once they start. I received an email from Donnie saying that the parents keep getting up and staring at the eggs, so maybe the pipping has begun.

(Pipping: the process of breaking open an eggshell using an egg tooth)

Two Interesting Wildlife Cams

Two cams I want to share. First is the Heber osprey nest.  
Update: three eggs in nest, appearance dates - 4/16, 4/18, 4/?
Incubation period for osprey ... 35 - 40 days
Fledge period for osprey ... 7 - 8 weeks



Video streaming by Ustream



Second is a red-tailed hawk in Ithaca, NY. One of the three eggs has hatched! The other two should be within days.

Watch live streaming video from cornellhawks at livestream.com

Egg #4

Egg #4, appeared sometime between 8:15 and 10:37.

Comparing Mom and Dad

Update: I caught a better pic of mom this morning. See third pic.

I have been trying to capture images of female and male on the nest to see the differences. I think you can see in the top image, that if she was turned fully sideways like the bottom image, that her tail feathers would hang onto that ledge. Where on the bottom photo his feathers dont reach the ledge.

Nest Talk

This is interesting video captured by Skygirlblue of the pair 'chatting' about the nest on April 9, three days before first egg. The male is the one you see the most of here.

Egg #3

Egg #3 - this pic taken about 1pm

Someone caught a first glimpse at 12:34 Eastern time, see this link for pic.
http://www.peregrinefalcon-bcaw.net/viewtopic.php?f=258&p=179807&sid=b5d1e06ce44d00ca935512a69f2a2171#p179807

Egg #2

Woot! Woot! Now there are two!  

First Glimpse Egg #1

I believe this is Dad, with egg #1 at 9:15am

We have an egg this morning!!

Guess Who?