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



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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?

The Cameras are On!

Just got official word that the nest cams are on! (This is my view of the box from my office across the street.)

Hi and welcome to the 2012 nesting season! The nest cams on Temple Square are not up yet (Bob says maybe in a week or so) but I thought I would alert you to a nesting pair Osh Kosh, WI and in Evanston, IL at the public library, who have laid two eggs so far and there may be another tomorrow. I have moved the permanent links for these nests to the top of the side bar for easy access.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/uwo-peregrine-falcon
http://www.epl.org/falconcam/

p.s. Bob has seen the SLC pair hanging out downtown so keep fingers crossed for a great 2012 season!

Another Nest Box Downtown

I found this little tidbit on KSL News. Apparently there is a falcon box installed on The Church of the Madeline's bell tower. You will see the box about 3/4 of the way into this video.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=17925623

Towards the end of the season we saw a juvenile fly off east of Temple Square and wondered where they might be heading. This maybe be a feeding spot, as the church has pigeons as well. I highly doubt the breeding pair would choose that box over the one they've already used in years past but this gives us a place to look when we know they head east.

Nice Weather!

Hello. I am so dreading winter, how 'bout you? Its been beautiful this week, though, which won't last I know. We are supposed to see snow on Thursday. Bahhh!

I mean't to share a couple photos I took back in September of a couple of the adults hanging out, here they are. At first I thought they might be juveniles but Bob says 'no'. Oh well. The bird in photo 1 is a different bird than the other two. I was able to see both at nearly the same time.

Heading in to September

Hi Folks,

Wow, heading in to September already and there are still a few spotty sightings of Bobbie, and maybe Charlie, downtown. Bob saw a juvenile last weekend but was unable to spot a band on it so possibly it wasn't one of our young of the year.

Just this past Friday evening I stopped downtown and saw both adults, the male on the north face of Zion's Bank and the female on the north face of Gateway West building which is on the SW corner of Main and S. Temple. She was calling.

It appears the falcon cams have been turned off as well.

So I am sad to say, this may be my last post of 2011. We are putting together an email list for next year's fledge watch team. If you have not been receiving emails but would like to be a part of the fun next year, please send me a note and I will add you to the list. Thanks for all the support, emails, tweets and boots on the ground this year. See you next year!

Steve S. with Bobbie (fledge #4)

Liz

Update from Bob Walters

I talked to Bob on Thursday evening and he told me he was downtown and had seen a bird on the east side of COB, a juvenile, and it took off flying east of State Street. That is interesting, possibly they are hanging out on the cathedral. He also said he saw the two adults fly in around dark and land on the two bank buildings on either side of Main and South Temple. Here is a follow up note he sent to me
on Friday:

Follow-up report to conversation with Liz on August 18 at 8:16 p.m., or so: angled malar tips suggest that the young-of-the-bird observed on the east rail above the plexiglass on the tall Church Office Building was Charlie.

Later, 8:59 -9:08 p.m., I observed a young-of-the-year bird at roost on the lower right-hand corner of the 6th from the top, fire escape opening on the west side, north face of the tall Church Office Building.
Also, despite repeated calls and messages to return my calls, I've received no word from my contact at the Intermountain Medical Center as to a check/look into the nest box where a few of us have spotted a single adult on the large sign visible on the east face from State Street.

Hummingbirds

The hummingbirds are coming back to our feeders. The first video is of a Black Chinned hummer. The second is a turf war. These go on all the time. One sits in the trees just across from the feeder and if 'anyone' tries to feed, he runs 'em off.

Notes from Bob

I received this brief note of updates from Bob Walters today, it appears the kids are hunting:

I was downtown on Saturday evening on August 6. I watched a young-of-the-year bird stoop on a pigeon from the southeast corner of the Key Bank Tower (KBT) to the east of State Street (it missed) and then return toward the KBT and out of view. Later, I noted a bird (impossible to determine if an adult, or young-of-the-year) at roost up against the tinted glass where the glass intersects the main column on the west side on the south face of the COB and Cynthia picked up a bird at roost on the twelfth barred, fire escape opening on the north side of the COB.

Plus ... I visited the IMC on Sat., August 6 and from <19:45 - 19:55 observed and studied an adult tiercel PEFA (Peregrine Falcon)  perched on the lower, right-hand corner of the lower, support member of the sign (Intermountain Medical Center). No word, so far from the maintenance fellow who was going to take a look into the nest box.

All for now.

Another Salt Lake Area Falcon Box

I am very excited to report that I saw a peregrine at another location in the Salt Lake area. A week ago, Bob told me about a falcon box that was installed on the Intermountain Health Care building in Murray, Utah. He said that the guy who installed it has not really been communicative, so Bob stopped to see if there might be youngsters. He was not really expecting that it was used this year. He did see a bird on the east face of the largest building but it was behind the sign and nothing but the face was visible. I stopped last weekend also, to see if I could see anything. Nothing.

But today, I stopped after going to the farmer's market and lo and behold there was a bird sitting on the west side (out of that east sun) right next to the 'M' on the Inter Mountain sign. I was so excited and it looked like a juvenile! I got out my camera, got all focused and realized that I didn't have my memory card inserted - it was at home in my computer. Rats. So I made a trip back there late this afternoon and after hunting a bit, I found this bird and I also got a good shot of the falcon box and the excrement flowing down the sides of the hospital. Its very apparent that birds have been using this area quite a bit, indicating that there were probably chicks. Yay! This bird looks like an adult, darn. I will be stopping back again this week to look some more. In case you are wondering, there are no cameras in this box but who knows, maybe the hospital could be talked into putting them in!

See the excrement on the right side of the windows?

Its very apparent here! And look there is a bird on the ledge/sill!

Wow, it looks like a lot of falcons hang out here!

See her under the 'r'?

I bet its a female.

This is where I saw the bird this morning, but it was in shade, just to the left of the 'M'

Thursday Night Photos

I went to Temple Square late last night, really too late to catch any flights but I snapped this picture of a bird roosting on the COB at dark. Bob thought he saw a juvenile on the south side roosting, so this may have been Bobbie on the north side.First, though, I want to share a photo 'collage' that SkygirlBlue sent me to compare bird sizes in the box, in hopes that we can conclude that the bird in the box on Wednesday was indeed Charlie. You can see that the bird on the far right is larger than the other two, it's the adult female, the middle phots is the adult male, so we are thinking that the left side is a juvenile male. I asked Bob and he confirmed that the juveniles are full size when they leave the next.

I sure wish I could get a photo with both juvies. According to Bob, the adults don't roost here, this is a juvie hang out.

 

Sixth window down on the right side of center column.

Bird in the Box

Today, unexpectedly, a juvenile showed up in the box and I think it was Charlie! What do you think? Sorry, these are from a camera phone and low resolution. Its a juvenile for sure and it sure looks small.Thanks Cynthia for sending them to me!