On the Edge!

Solo was making me quite nervous tonight. Only hours or short days away from fledge. He cranes his neck looking for parents at 1:05 and 1:35. Thought he was going to tip right out! Toward the end he is goofing around and almost loses it at 5:05.

Who you Gonna Call?

If you see Solo leave the nest, please call Bob at 801 209-5326 no matter what time ;)

It's gonna be roasting in that nest. Watch for early morning fledge in the next few days. Many of our fledges happen before 6:30am local time.

Video of parents demonstrating flight for Solo (thanks Skygirlblue). They are serious.

 

From Below

I went over to the gardens on my lunch. He's cute, huh? Here is a note received from Bob which refers to parents demonstrating flying for Solo's benefit. The view he talks about is what Solo sees out of the box:

"watched flight demonstrations by the adults to the east of the JSMB ... flying in the area of the Administration Building and flying/perching on the antenna atop the apartments just east of State Street (northeast corner of State and South Temple streets) and on the scrolls to the north of the nest box. Checked the weather forecast (KSL.com) and here comes the heat: 

Fri. - 100, Sat. - 101, Sun. - 102, Mon. - 101 degrees! So, even though Solo is quite downy, my guess for first vault out is Thurs., or Fri."

Is Solo being Fed? YES!

I am sharing several videos tonight.

First Skygirl caught this very cute video yesterday of baby and Dad. I love the head cranks when Dad walks by, starting at about 1:25 and through the end.



Next is a video I took today while I was hiking. I left the recorder on about 3:30. At approx. 4:15pm Solo was at the other end of the box wing flapping, playing with leftovers. Of course, I am lousy at this and there is no sound.



Here we finally see dinner being delivered about 5:20. Solo is ridiculous! Her aggression when food is around is quite comical. Self feeding lasted 20 minutes.



And finally, Solo does not want any parental interference. When Mom tries to approach, Solo hisses and eventually runs Mom out of the box.

Things are Changing Fast Now!

Be sure your speakers are NOT on full blast for this one. Solo is aggressive and hilarious. The changes in her are going to come fast now.

Volunteers Needed! Solo is the Name!

Hi Everyone,
We are beginning to plan our volunteer coverage. Hope you will find time to put in a few hours if you are local. More details posted here:

Salt Lake Volunteer Meetup Group

Also announcing the results of our Name the Baby survey.
The little guy is now known as Solo!

Chick vs. Parent

Mary Anne caught our chick self feeding this morning! That is a milestone for sure. Two videos below show a shocked looking parent, probably Mom, and look how large baby looks next to her. This could mean 'it' is a 'she'!

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 :)