Look who's sitting.
But not for long!

[Happy Birthday Janet, enjoy Jersey and your Pizza!!]

Happy Birthday Janet, enjoy Jersey and your Pizza!!  

Oh dear!  But remember Dundas?  He lost a foot in his juvie year, but went on to nest just fine as I recall.  These birds are more resilient than we give them credit for.

Yup, Dundas was an amazing falcon! 

Injury likely caused by trap, naturalist says.

SOUTH BEND -- Fans of downtown's resident peregrine falcons look forward to each spring with the prospect that the pair will hatch more chicks in their nest atop County-City Building.

The chance of that happening this year, unfortunately, took a serious hit in recent weeks.

Zephyr, the male falcon, is missing his right foot, and it appears to be a trap injury, said Carol Riewe, a local naturalist and raptor rehabilitator who follows the birds.

He still is able to fly, but his ability to hunt will be handicapped. Peregrine falcons feed almost exclusively on other birds, attacking and grasping them in flight.

"Obviously, this is not a good thing," Riewe said. "The question will be whether this bird will be able to hunt well enough to feed not only himself but chicks."

Guinevere, the female falcon, appears to be healthy but hasn't laid any eggs this spring, possibly because of Zephyr's injury, Riewe said. Guinevere laid the first of two eggs last year on April 5.

Riewe said she noticed earlier this week that Zephyr's right foot is gone. She said the incident likely occurred within the past two weeks.

She said some people who raise racing pigeons trap raptors because they prey on the pigeons. Another possibility, she said, is Zephyr could have been caught accidentally in a trap set for small mammals, such as rats.

Either way, the peregrine falcon is a federally protected species. It's illegal to try to trap one, Riewe said, and it also is illegal to not report one that is trapped by accident.

Guinevere and Zephyr have nested in a box on top of the 14-story County-City Building since 2007. Before that the nesting box was on Tower building.

"These birds have a following here. This is the ninth year they would have nested here -- the same two birds," Riewe said. "It's a very sad situation this year."

southbendtribune

Donna is here?  In Rochester??  Donna who is not addicted???  Donna who never leaves her house????
This news is ALMOST as exciting as Beauty's 2nd egg!!!!!!  This is my sign to retire from lurking... I must meet this woman.  I will see you all tomorrow.  Oh, happy, happy day!!!!!!
Carla P
xoxo

That was so funny Carla!! Yes, it's me, I'm here. Oh what a day we had. I hope to see you tomorrow.  MAK and I will be out early, then later, off to Wild Wings to see the residents and feed the Chickadees. Anyone is welcome to come along. I'll be waiting Carla! 

So we go to KP in time to watch for Archer's migration over. Well, he never showed, seemed he wanted to stay by his beloved Beauty and 2 eggs tonight. That's fine with me, I was glad he stayed by the nest. Had a great day, met many people: Bobbie, Brian, Carol, Dana/Lou, Kathy O, Susan C, Dan, Suzanne/Don, Linda/no Tim, Joyce, jeanne, Casey/Abby, June, ginha/Dave, Kelly and the stars...Archer & Beauty. Beautiful day and I have sunburn on my face, a bonus, I guess. Tomorrow, another adventure! Loved meeting you all today and now I know why you get excited on Falcon Watches!   

Hey Donna...did you yell?  Is that why I wok up this early on a Saturday?

 

LOL Ei, I think we're all yelling at this point!

Archer visits

both took off at 5:20

Last push maybe


I would say 1:13 am

This is great!!!!

SWEET

[Hi markman, welcome!]

Hi markman, welcome! 

Kara Donna Mak

Yay thanks!

She's been pretty vocal

Events from the nest today: April 7

Viewers of the nest today will notice what a good job our pair of ospreys have done so far in building up the sides to create the bowl shape needed to protect the eggs from rolling out. Ospreys are notoriously quite particular about their nests; constantly adjusting bits of material – this is a trait that our female continues to display, as she has done over her previous years breeding here at Loch of the Lowes.

We still all have hope for some eggs to be laid in the near future. With mottled reddish brown markings, these eggs are surprisingly small being the size of an average hen egg!

A question that we received via ospreys@swt.org.uk  queried if there is a way to tell apart our male and female when they are on the nest, as it is increasingly difficult to see our male’s green ring bearing the 7Y mark. My response to this would be to suggest comparing the size of the two birds as male ospreys are generally 20% smaller than females. It is difficult to tell them apart when they are not together, as there is little variation in markings of male and female ospreys.

The markings on our female osprey are also means for identification. These along with her confident behaviour claiming her domain on the nest, are clear indicators as to her identity. We have been able to match these traits with the ‘lightning bolt’ defect marking on her iris, which we now use as a simple means to identify her.

At 9.30am this morning there was another osprey is the vicinity. At this time our male was on his perch but returned to the nest. The presence of our two ospreys was enough on this occasion to deter any intruder without causing any distress.

Both ospreys have been on and off the nest during the day, with our resident male bringing in a fish at 10.48am, which our female then flew off with.