The formatting of your post looks fine here. I suppose it could be due to the browser I'm using.

Extraction of eyases without hard hats and brooms? Where are the parents?

Perennelle and Falco were circling and screaming over/around the roof. She almost landed once or twice on the security fencing put up by the building crew but thought better of it.

In the meantime we have a blog post with a video compilation on our homepage:
https://falcommunity.de/falkenkueken-beringt-teil-2

Here is a quick update from Fellbach.

Today (May 1) our four eyases were banded up on the roof - they don't have names (yet) but we have 3 girls and 1 boy with all them proclaimed to be in good health and very well fed (no wonder with as efficient a hunter as their dad! Falco brings food, which Perennelle promptly takes from him and feeds to the eyases as seen in this video-compilation)

Here are some pictures one member from our team got during our stay on the roof:
https://falcommunity.de/bildergalerie/falken-cam-galerie?sgdg-path-377d77ec=1oqdEHJ0jN0zX3duptoDN5nfMBuXAVGrE

I got some video snippets:

Links to a few short videos I shot during the hour or so we were up on the roof:
Video #1 - Getting the eyasses out of the nestbox
 
Video #2 - Banding while being watched
 
Video #3 - Getting the bands - resistance is futile

Video #4 - Back into the nestbox

Cheers
Baerbel

P.S.: I don't know why the video links only show up with lots of "white" space inbetween. In the preview I see proper links (even with the embedded video) but after posting it looks differently and when I edit the post again, the link to the video got changed from https:// to http:// (this change might actually be the reason why e.g. Firefox then doesn't display the video properly - we have that issue on Skeptical Science as well whenever embedded videos still go to http instead of https)

During the week, all four eggs hatched and we now have 4 eyasses in Fellbach! Three of them hatched on April 10 and the fourth on on April 12.

These short blog posts contain pictures and videos:

April 10:
The first eyas hatched
Feeding
Two hungry beaks

April 11:
Breakfast (a starling) for three

April 12:
The "big" three are hungry
The quartett is complete

April 13:
Quite the task for Falco

Cheers
Baerbel

Very nice setup!

Thanks, Shaky!

I wasn't involved with the technical setup but we luckily have a member in our conservation group who has the relevant know-how and prepared everything. We have a page about the setup (in German) and Google-translate does a reasonable job at translating it, but loses all the pictures in the result.

Cheers
Baerbel

Hi Folks,

long time no see (and sorry about that). Today, I have some exciting news I'd like to share with you:

The pair of peregrine falcons - Perenelle and Falco - who took up residence in a tall and unfinished building in Fellbach (Germany) 1 year ago have started breeding about a week ago! We had managed to have 2 webcams installed in the nestbox just in time with not quite 2 weeks to spare before the first egg was laid. Which is why we know that they are now sitting on four eggs.

You can follow the activities on top of the 107 meter tall building via a dedicated website:

http://falcommunity.de/

It's obviously in German so here are the "important" l inks:

Camera 1 outside the nestbox
http://falcommunity.de/falkenkameras/falken-cam1

Camera 2 inside the nestbox:
http://falcommunity.de/falkenkameras/falken-cam2

If the stream doesn't start, refreshing the page and then clicking on the start icon usually helps.

Galerie page with collection of pictures captured by the cameras:
http://falcommunity.de/bildergalerie/falken-cam-galerie

Here is a picture captured shortly after the cameras were operative - Falco about to land:
https://nabu-fellbach.de/showimage.php?unid=2787

Enjoy poking around!

Cheers
Baerbel

Hi Folks,

seeing today's tweets about yet another successful banding day in Rochester brought many fond memories about the time I had been active here on RFalconCam and with the community. Unfortunately, I no longer have enough time to re-connect properly but I thought I'd drop in at least quickly with some exciting news about peregrine falcons here in Fellbach.

A couple of years ago, an investor decided to build one of Germany's highest apartment buildings (107m with 30+ floors) right here in Fellbach, perhaps 1 mile away from where I live. Unfortunately, the investors had to file for bankruptcy about 2 years ago, so we are stuck with a not even half-way finished building towering over the town. The upper floors don't even have walls and windows yet! It didn't take very long for a pair of peregrines to notice this building and to take up residence in the upper floors. This could have been a show-stopper for any further potential building activity should a new investor be found, so a nestbox was quickly built and installed on the rooftop. A day later, the falcons had claimed it as their new home and vantage point!

We were fairly certain that eggs had been laid and on May 9 two eyases could be banded. Our local newspaper asked their readers for name suggestions for the whole family and I was asked to help with picking the winning entries. Most of the names were quickly discarded as they just made fun of the building's situation, while others were simply - I don't know - "banal" like "Felli" and such. We settled on "Falco" for the male, "Perenelle" for the female and "Grit" and "Nushin" for the female eyases as we (well, mostly I!) really liked the reasoning for those names provided by the woman who submitted them: taken together the initial letters of the names spell out "Falco Peregrinus"!

If you are interested, you can check out some articles on our local conservation group's homepage (in German, but with some pictures to get an idea of the location)

Erste Bewohner im Gewa-Tower: Wanderfalken! (The falcons taking up residence)
Montage der Wanderfalken-Nestbox auf dem Gewa-Tower (Putting up the nestbox)
Beringung Wanderfalkenküken auf dem GEWA-Tower (Banding the eyases)
Namen für die Wanderfalken! (Naming the falcons)

Cheers
Baerbel

Thanks folks!

I already shared the following with the other mods/admins:

As those of you who are connected with me on Facebook will perhaps know from my activities there, I'm spending most of my spare time with climate-related stuff, helping with Skeptical Science everywhich way I can (http://sks.to/BaerbelW). In addition, I still coordinate the work of the Wilhelma-volunteers and am active at our local conservation group and sometimes help in climate-related online courses (MOOCs) as Community Teaching Assistant. This unfortunately, doesn't leave time to actively stay involved with RFalconCam apart from following some FB-postings or Tweets now and then.
...
Due to this, I'm wondering if it might not be best, if I "step down" as moderator/admin for RFalconCam as I'm no longer able to really fullfil that role.

Followed a bit later by this:

I haven't yet made up my mind - which is why I posted this as a question  

It's just that I no longer have the bandwidth to really do the job a moderator/admin should be doing. As long as you all don't have an issue with me not sharing the load, I don't mind staying on as mod/admin (if only in name!).

The next couple of months will be very busy for me as Skeptical Science and the University of Queensland are currently putting together a MOOC which is scheduled to start in April:
Denial101x: Making Sense of Climate Science Denial

I'll be helping with moderating the forums which could get rather timeconsuming given the topic and that "the usual suspects" are already starting to make some noise about it.

On the other hand, I just learned last week that Kärcher (the company I've been working for since 2011) is going to put up a peregrine nestbox on its premises in order to try and get the pigeons under control. So, who knows? I may get to do some more falcon watching in the not too distant future!  

To add to the last paragraph: I learned today that the pole with the nestbox is planned to be installed next week and it will be equipped from the get-go with a camera and the necessary cabling!

So, what do you think? Are you okay with me staying on as mod/admin "in name only"?

Cheers
Baerbel

  Thanks, All for the greetings! 

I'd like to have more time to still participate here but that is not very likely to happen. In case you are interested, you can check out some of my activities at Skeptical Science to know why that is the case.

Hi Folks,

I just happened upon this article about peregrine falcon chicks dying due to heavy rains in the Arctic spring:
Heavy Rains Are Killing Peregrine Falcon Chicks In The Canadian Arctic

The complete study 'Heavy rainfall increases nestling mortality of an arctic top predator: experimental evidence and long-term trend in peregrine falcons' ( Alexandre Anctil, Alastair Franke, Joël Bêty ) can be read and downloaded here:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00442-013-2800-y

And yes, I'm still around and just as busy as always
Baerbel

Hi Folks,

long time no new topic from me but I just couldn't resist sharing this cool, inspiring, wonderful video with you:

http://youtu.be/AvAnfi8WpVE

This is from the video description:
http://www.cbcmusic.ca
The Barenaked Ladies, a children's choir, and the commander of the International Space Station. Put them together and what do you get? The first space-to-earth musical collaboration.
The song, "I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing) was commissioned by CBCMusic.ca and The Coalition for Music Education with the Canadian Space Agency to celebrate music education in schools across Canada.


Chris Hadfield from the Canadian Space Agency wrote some of the lyrics for the song and he is doing a lot of outreach about what happens on the I.S.S. He also posts pictures from Space on his Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield

Enjoy!

Cheers from Germany
Baerbel

Thanks for the birthday greetings! 

Those of you who are also on Facebook know, that a lot of my "free" time is taken up by my involvement with the website Skeptical Science and in addition I'm also still doing voluntary work at the Stuttgart zoo (the Wilhelma) and our local conservation group where I - among other things - maintain the website. And recently, I've found the educational website Coursera, which offers online courses on a wide variety of topics (for free), and I somehow managed to cram that into my daily activities as well with currently two courses (one of which is winding up): "Think Again - How to Reason and Argue" and "Science from Superheroes to Global Warming". All of this - plus my fulltime job at Kärcher - unfortunately don't leave enough time to actively keep on following and participating with Rfalconcam. I am however keeping at least somewhat up-to-date by what gets posted on Facebook.

Cheers
Baerbel

Hi Folks,

even though I'm no longer actively following the discussions in the forum, I still keep an eye on happenings in Rochester (mostly via the FB-postings). As a picture says more than a thousand words, here is my holiday greeting for all of you!

Cheers from Germany
Baerbel

Hi Folks and thanks for all the greetings! 

I'm still around, just don't have the time to participate on the forums regularly. I'll be starting a new job in March, right after my return from my vacation and am otherwise busy with climate-change activities (earlier this week, my first post went live on Skeptical Science in which I introduce a quiz about climate-change).

Cheers from Germany
Baerbel

Hi Folks,

enjoy the holidays and have a great start into 2011!

Attached is a greeting from some feathered friends outside my window.

Cheers
Baerbel

Wish I could be with you all this weekend! Enjoy your get together and have lots of fun!

Cheers
Baerbel