Two falcon chicks featured on CBC's live-streaming camera have died and the weather is being blamed.
"We have lost a second chick to the horribly wet weather Brandon has had this spring. It is most likely that the prolonged wet weather and the very young age of the chick was the cause," Tracy Maconachie, a conservation biologist, posted on the comments section of the Falcon Cam page.
Maconachie is the co-ordinator of the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project, which has partnered with CBC to offer the CBC Falcon Cams in Winnipeg since 2006. The Brandon cam was added this year, where Hurricane and Brooklyn are the featured parents.
Hurricane tries to keep her brood protected from the elements on Tuesday.Hurricane tries to keep her brood protected from the elements on Tuesday. (Submitted by Karihari)
They had four eggs hatch this year but one of the chicks, the third to break out, died soon after, said Maconachie.
"The chicks are too young to thermoregulate on their own so getting wet and cold is deadly for them," she said.
A handful of rain and wind storms have blown through the Brandon area over the past week and temperatures, for the most part, have been below normal.
"The first chick was in trouble, probably before it completed hatching … and it too hatched during a torrential rainstorm. It looks to have hatched before dawn on June 3rd and died within the first couple of hours," Maconachie said.
As for the second chick, chances are it was the youngest of the four, she added.
"And at three days of age it was affected most by the wet."
Hurricane did her best to shield her chicks, but she isn't large "and with three chicks and a day-long deluge like yesterday, it was going to be almost impossible to keep them perfectly dry and warm," Maconachie said.
'Deaths are unfortunately inevitable with any wild species and all anybody can do, is over-plan for the worst, hang-on through the bad and hope to see the chicks flying come the summer.'—Tracy Maconachie
Like the falcons in Winnipeg, the Brandon birds have access to a nestbox that offers some protection. Hurricane was tucked under the cover of the roof all day on Tuesday "but she and Brooklyn did need to feed [the chicks], at which time there was no way to keep them entirely out of the wind and the rain," Maconachie said.
"Had this been on a ledge on a cliff, none of the chicks would have been likely to survive at this young age," she added.
"Deaths are unfortunately inevitable with any wild species and all anybody can do, is over-plan for the worst, hang-on through the bad and hope to see the chicks flying come the summer."
So far, the four chicks in Winnipeg are doing well, thanks to the efforts of their parents, Princess and Ivy.
"While the rain wasn't nearly as bad in Winnipeg, Princess was taking no chances with her chicks [Tuesday]night even though they are twice as old as the Brandon chicks and much more capable of withstanding bad weather in their much larger nestbox," Maconachie said.
"She had them all piled into a corner and she was using her body as a shield to protect them since they are too large now for her to sit on and keep covered."
Hurricane feeds her three chicks on June 6. One of them died the next day.
Hurricane tries to keep her brood protected from the elements on Tuesday
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