Survey Says.....

Hi Everyone, please register your choice for our 'only child' falcon baby! Thank you for all the suggestions. We had a few people make the final choices for voting. Please only one vote per person.

Afternoon Feeding and Name that Bird

Today reached 99 degrees. If you looked in on the cam, you may have noticed the chick flat out on the scrape, trying to stay cool as well as feathers blowing around. It is very breezy today. Here is a video of the late lunch service ~ the eyas was very hungry!

Later this week, we will have a survey posted in combination with the Utah DNR SLC Peregrine Facebook page. We will choose several of the suggestions being posted there and let you vote on your favorite. If you would like to put a suggestion in, head over to their Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Salt-Lake-City-Peregrine-Falcons/

Live Banding in Jersey

Quick note: You can watch a live 'banding' of a baby peregrine (this is a one chick nest also) in Jersey City tomorrow morning, June 5 at 7:30 MT (9:30 ET) . They will take the baby from nest, put on an identification band, determine gender, give it a check up.  Wonder if Snooki will be there? http://www.njfishandwildlife.com/peregrinecam/jcp-live.htm

Morning Feeding

Ok, I am dangerous now! I have a new software package to record video. This is a bit of the feeding this morning at 8:45 local time (now I just have to figure out how to get the sound added).  Also, I am beginning to add some links to other nests where there are only one chick in the nest for us to keep an eye on. You will find them on the right side of the site. Zoom is an only falcon (female) in Columbus. She is due to fledge the nest this week, possibly Friday, although the normal expected would be a few days longer for a female.

Temps are Hotter

You will notice the chick spread eagle a lot during our warmer temperatures. It was quite warm yesterday ~ we hit the 93. But its back down in the 80's this week and with our DRY air, thats very comfortable. Is it just me, or is this chick growning fast?!

June 3 8:30am

June 1 8:30am

Look at the crop on him! He has no competition for food, that's for sure.

Here is a video of cuddle time with Mom.

Day 7

Bob sent out an email today that has a link to an age guide via the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.  www.peregrine-foundation.ca/info/ageguide.html  

Do you think this picture taken at day 7 matches the guide? Please make a stop over at Bird Cams Around the World to see the more pictures and video. (Skygirlblue keeps a close eye on the happenings in SLC and has been a great friend to this blog.)
http://www.peregrinefalcon-bcaw.net/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1521&start=100

One Chick Nest

Hi Folks,

We may very well have just a one chick nest this year. I thought I would share this cute video of our falcon Dad babysitting the chick. It's good to see him, he's been scarce lately. Also below I am adding some statistics on how many eggs have hatched in our SLC downtown nest in the past, via a note I received from Bob Walters.

No. of years (0) hatched young in brood = 2

No. of years (1) hatched young in brood = 1*
No. of years (2) hatched young in brood = 6(SLC) + 3(Hell's Canyon) = 9

No. of years (3) hatched young in brood = 5

No. of years (4) hatched young in brood = 3

"So, we were over due for a one nestling/eyas brood. We'll take it and any more miracles that come our way!"

  

Egg Mystery- broken egg!!

Very odd happenings this morning. If anyone witnessed the actual breaking of the egg, please comment. For now, it appears that the egg was not viable and Mom got rid of contents. The chick that was already in the nest, got wet somehow, maybe from egg bursting? Here is video captured by Mary Anne. Also, if you want to keep up with all activity when there are no new postings, watch Twitter feed on the right side of this site. You will see chat between Skygirlblue and me when I am out and about. She is on top of things many times when I am not!

Hatch #1

Our first hatchling is here! Sometime between 9:32 and 9:35.

 

 

Hatch Tonight??

As Bob just told me over the phone, this incubation gig can be quite tiresome. Folks, heads up, we've got a hatch about to happen...

Here's a video taken earlier where you can possibly hear the chick in the egg?

http://youtu.be/13yNzZ26FRs

Here's a photo possibly showing a hole in the front egg. Keep your cams on!!

I Love Charts!

This is super cool. You can see the activity on my blog since eggs started appearing. Its so awesome that everyone comes back as soon as its nesting time again. See that jump on April 20? That is due to the SL Trib article, my friends. The second chart is a full year. July was over 6,000 hits. Thanks for reading :)

SL Tribune and YouTube

Hello, hello, is it May 20 yet? I received a note from Bob Walters letting me know that is his predicted first hatch date!

While we wait for eggs to hatch... check out my SLC Falcon playlist on YouTube. It is every video I could find featuring the Salt Lake City Peregrine falcons all the way back to 2009.

Click here for playlist

 

http://goo.gl/q3tn8

Also, check out this article in the Salt Lake Tribune where this blog is mentioned and some of my  photos were featured. Sweet.

Egg #4

Arrived over night. Its raining here. She looks wet!

Egg #3 Video

Well, Egg 3 made an appearance this morning around 9:30! You can see her lay it at about the 3:40 mark on this video provided by Skygirl.

Bob Walters and Peregrines in SL Tribune Article

Check out the article that ran in yesterday's paper.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/56148814-78/peregrine-lake-salt-walters.html.csp

Egg #2

When I went to bed at midnight last night, there was only one egg. But mom was sitting in this upright position which I thought was odd. She looked a little uncomfortable.

I received a tweet at 6:30 mountain time this morning from Skygirlblue telling me she thought there was a second egg but was waiting for it to get lighter. So sometime between midnight and 6:30. I believe our second egg appeared. Thanks to her for these photos!

around 6:30am MDST

About 6:55

FIRST EGG!!

The first egg was layed about 11:30!!
http://youtu.be/wRv0O2121W4

Falcon Cams are ON!

I've been in Chicago for my daughter's wedding for the past week but heard through my grapevine that the cameras have been turned on! The church installed new high-def cams and the images are beautiful!

Head over to BCAW and check out some of the screen captures. Based on these, looks like eggs could be coming very soon!

http://www.peregrinefalcon-bcaw.net/viewtopic.php?f=334&t=1521&sid=9327d699019b59aca10590da0c5d0d61&start=20

Thought I'd share a pic of the bride :)

Primo Release!

What a beautiful day out on Antelope Island. The caravan made its way out at 11am and we had a brief update from Joanne, then Primo was off! He took a few turns around the field and landed on a far fence rail. He was still there when we left. Enjoy the photos and video. To all those who made their way out to watch, thank you for your support and we hope you will join us down at Falcon Central this summer. We sure need your help keeping track of our fledglings.

Our caravan makes its way along the 9-mile route.

The falcon watch team gathers to walk to release area.

The abandoned falcon nest tower out at the edge of Great Salt Lake. We hoped Primo would head there on release.

Just prior to release.

Photo by Blythe Thatcher of Mary Lou who gets the honors.

Primo decided to roost on this fence rail. He was there when we left. He was approx 100 yards off the road.

Primo's Long Awaited Release!

This was posted on the DWR Facebook page!  I can take a few people with me. Email me if you want to carpool. Pictures sunday!

Antelope Island State Park is beautiful! I took this picture several years ago. There are bison, pronghorn antelope, coyotes, and many, many species of water fowl that use it as a migration stop.



Welcome to 2013 Nesting Season!

Do YOU know where the nestbox is in this picture?

It's 2013!! We made it. We are just five to six weeks away from our first egg (hopefully). Its been pretty chilly in Salt Lake City, but this week it will warm up to the 50's. The adult pair of peregrine falcons have been seen and heard downtown in the past weeks. I thought I would share a note that I received from Bob Walters of the Division of Wildlife Resources. Note: we may have a couple more nest locations brewing in our valley ~ see below:

Salt Lake City (Joseph Smith Memorial Building):

Jesse  reported on Mon., March 4 at 1:06 p.m. as follows:

"I just walked by the falcon box for lunch and there was a larger bird with a more orange breast feathers inside the box chirping. The smaller male was outside on the ledge to the south of the box. Another fun season starts."

The nest box has been cleaned up, examined, etc. New, HD cameras have been installed and are ready to go.
 

With luck, live, streaming falcon activities begin following the LDS Church Spring Conference, April 6 and 7.

Plans are in motion to retrieve Primo from Colorado soon. (more news on possible release to come later)

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Sandy City: Jordan Commons Office Tower, or JCOT (east of 9400 S. and State streets, where, as I now recall, I received a credible report of observations of a lone peregrine falcon last Fall)

Mention of a peregrine and, subsequently, a bird whitewash problem (even more specifically, the expense associated with clean-up) at this location led to my investigation of the situation in the Fall of 2012. I dropped by the location yesterday, March 7 at 3:33 p.m., and while I did not detect peregrines, I noted that building management personnel have installed a conduit-framed, hardware cloth shroud over the Debry University sign on the west face of the JCOT. I'm certain that this addition was designed to preclude use of the sign as a perch site in order to at least minimize the whitewash problem. While baling twine, wires and hardware cloth are scary when it comes to birds (due to risk of entanglement), I plan to continue monitoring the site and encourage your help, when you can, if you are in that neighborhood on this, that, or the other errand, etc. 

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Murray: Intermountain Medical Center (5121 S. Cottonwood St., roughly 5000 S., west of State St.)

Stopped by yesterday, March 7 at 3:59 p.m. to take a look and lo and behold, what did I find? Answer: a pair o' peregrines perched atop the Intermountain Medical Center sign on the east face of that building. Both the male and female appear  dark-capped/hooded due to sooty, or blackened ear patches. Let's hope that this pair gets crackin' ... the nest box on the east face awaits use as a nest site! 

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All for now. Well not quite all. The Airport bald eagles appear to be incubating ... so far, 36, successfully fledged eaglets over 17 years!

Primo

Birds of Prey Foundation posted a new photo of Primo on their Facebook page.

"For all of you in Utah waiting for news on Primo- here she is. Flying beautifully and catching her own food. Now we just have to wait for spring for release."

Primo Update October 17

Hi Folks, the word out of the Colorado rehab center is that Primo will not be ready for release this fall. He will winter over there in hopes of a spring release. We do not have any specifics about why he isn't ready ~ could be he is not killing prey well enough, or it could be he is not flying strong enough. We likely will not have any other updates on him until then. No other updates on adults or Boxer either.



Cute huh? One of our volunteers sells custom greeting cards through www.lindanacards.com

Primo Photos Yippee!!

Joanne pulled through for us and sent some great photos of Primo getting ready for transport and his new location and housing! Enjoy and don't forget to donate if you can to the Birds of Prey Foundation.



Primo prior to loading for transport to Colorado.

Primo arrived safely on September 12 at Birds of Prey Foundation. Primo resides in building on the right.

Primo has roommates! Primo is the lower falcon on the step in this picture. He lives with two adult peregrines.

Primo's flight enclosure.

Primo in his new enclosure.

Primo Donations

Some people have asked how they can help with Primo. You can donate to the Birds of Prey Foundation and earmark that donation for Primo in the notes area of your Paypal payment. Whatever you can give, no matter how small, it will help greatly.  http://birds-of-prey.org/index.html

The Birds of Prey Non-Profit Foundation has had a banner year of orphaned or sick birds being brought to their facility. You can read more about their struggle in this newsletter. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/617466/BOP/AAO%202012%20summer%20windwalker.pdf

Primo after being picked up at H & M looking for a summer wardrobe :)