Gee, I forgot all about this Funnnnnnnnnnn were having. Ok so here it is, the real picture.

It's that weird looking face where the 2 railings connect..looks alien-ish to me. Bird Crazy is the only one who knew. Good job BC!! 

I've been looking at that since the cams started rolling at the Powers Building. It's the first thing I noticed.  Figured I'd have some fun with it.  Loved some of the answers though...(LOLA)!! 

The Red Deer River Naturalists are making big plans to upgrade the experience of webcam viewers before a couple of peregrine falcons return to nest on top of the Telus communications tower next spring.

Spokeswoman Judy Boyd said the group wants to add a camera to the outside of the nesting box so people can watch the peregrine falcons land on the ledge.

As well, they’d like to set up a night-vision camera inside the box so there’s viewing pleasure 24/7. A backup camera would also be installed inside.

Boyd said the cameras won’t be distracting to the birds because they are small and are positioned high inside the box. She describes them as cylinder-looking and will be attached to the wall.

The webcam used this year didn’t appear to be a problem.

“A lot of the webcam (viewings of wildlife) have a lot more than one camera,� said Boyd.

The nesting box became home to two parents, the female named Perry and the male Windsong. Their offspring were named Scout, Telli and Nadira.

Nadira, the smallest chick, was eventually fostered to another family in a more remote location.

The box, with the approval of Alberta Fish and Wildlife, was taken down last week because the falcons weren’t using it and it can now be cleaned.

Boyd said she noticed that two peregrine falcons were flying around in the neighbourhood of Highland Green where the tower is found.

“It doesn’t mean the other two have left, they may have just been somewhere else,� she added.

The peregrine falcons will fly south, possibly as far away as Argentina, for the winter and return in early April or so.

“We can hardly wait for next year,� said Boyd. “We really had a good first year learning about webcams and birds and everything.�

The webcam — running from April 24 to early August — resulted in a staggering number of hits to the Red Deer River Naturalists’ online “welcome� page. A total of 14,000 hits were recorded from May 1 to July 31.

The RDRN peregrine falcon web page also received about 50,000 views, while 320,000 web views were recorded on the U Stream live video page. The Red Deer Advocate recorded just over 82,000 web views of the peregrine falcons.

“It didn’t translate into new members (for us) but it did translate into people watching nature a little bit more,� said Boyd. “Our aim was to get people realizing what was in their backyard, especially in the Highland Green neighbourhood. Everyone there knows the peregrine falcons.�

In 1996, Zeus began his amazingly long reign in Omaha. He had hatched in Rochester, N.Y., during 1994. In 1996, he and his mate, Minnie (who had hatched in Winnipeg, Manitoba. in 1994), nested on the Woodmen Tower, producing four chicks and fledging two of them. In 1997, four more chicks hatched, but all died before fledging. In 1998, five young were fledged, and in 1999, four more were successfully reared.

Peregrine chicks (also called eyases) double their weight in six days and are ten times their size at birth in three weeks. (Paul A. Johnsgard)By 2001 Zeus had acquired a new mate, Amelia, hatched in 1999 in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He had begun courting her the previous year, when she was still too young to breed. The new pair successfully hatched four chicks in 2001, but none survived to fledging. However, during the next three summers, they fledged a total of eight young birds, including at least two every year.

Zeus acquired his third mate in 2006, a female (Hera) of unknown age and origin. In 2006, they managed to fledge four youngsters, followed by four more in 2007. The entire 2008 brood died before fledging, but in 2009, four females were fledged, and in 2010, two males and two females were reared. By then about 50 peregrines had been successfully reared on the Woodmen Tower.

No Ospreys, just Eagles.

Falcon there

State Office Tower in Columbus, Ohio.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Updates - This & That
We heard recently that Boomer (C/66 hatched in Columbus in 2008), has taken over the nesting territory at the Terminal Tower in Cleveland! The last time he was seen in Columbus was at the end of June, 2008. He had at least one collision with a window after fledgling so it is great to know that he has since fared well. Click here to review the fledging info from 2008. Be sure and check out the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's FalconCam coverage of the Terminal Tower nest and the associated falcon forums.

Durand and Trooper have both been making appearances at the nestbox every day or so and while there they have been demonstrating pair bonding behavior (bowing and vocalizing to each other). This activity is in preparation for next year: we are well beyond nesting season this year so there is no chance of another nest attempt in 2010. Both birds have also been working on the scrape in the gravel - again, this is bonding to/claiming of the site as theirs in preparation for next spring.

We also had a separate report of Durand "buzzing" around the 25th and 26th floors of the Franklin County Courthouse. Thanks to the Human Resources staff at the courthouse for snapping and sharing this photo of her on a window ledge taken on Tuesday, September 7, 2010!



Camera Update: In this the off-season we have begun experimenting with different camera settings to see if we can tweak the system to provide better viewing in late day conditions when the sun is in the west and the nestbox is in shadow. Bright sun shining towards the camera combined with a dark corner of the ledge confuses the iris of the camera and results in the dark corner being too dark to see any detail. The process of adjusting camera settings is by trial and error so expect that sometimes the image may not be ideal if the settings are not correct-viewers may notice the image being extremely bright or dark. Each time a setting is changed we will leave it for at least 24 hours to see how the image looks at different times of day/in different lighting conditions. We appreciate every one's patience as we work through this process of fine tuning the settings with the ultimate goal to make viewing our site more enjoyable in the long run.

Finally, the investigation concerning Scout's death is still ongoing. State and Federal investigators take the matter very seriously and are cooperating fully. Information, when available to the public, will be posted here on the blog but these matters can sometimes take a very long time to get through. No details or information can be disclosed until the matter is fully closed otherwise risk compromising the investigation. Thanks for your patience and thanks for watching the Columbus Falcons!

!!! More sad news to report! Blackberry has been found dead.
August 25, 2010 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
CPF Postmaster Reports:

While we don’t have any details as yet of little Balckberry’s demise, we have received sad news from OMNR Guelph district of a dead juvenile peregrine falcon havaing been reported to them wearing a black band 14 over Y. After a quick check of this years banding details, the band has been confirmed belonging to Blackberry, produced this year at the Sun Life centre nest site at Bloor & Islington in Etobicoke.
We hope to get more details and will post it as the information becomes available

!!! Renewal
September 14, 2010 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:

Angel and Jack have been busy renewing their pair bond for the past week.  This is typical behaviour at the end of nesting season - a way of reaffirming their commitment to the site and to each other.  So lots of echupping and time in the nestbox  bowing and scraping when he is here, otherwise Angel is perched on her cam enjoying the cool Fall air and Jack is off at his other site.

It was very sad to hear that our little Blackberry did not make it.    Fly free little buddy!

 Excellent Osprey action photo with fish out of water by Michael Irwin!
September 14, 2010 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:

I caught this Osprey fishing at Balsam lake a couple of weeks back…..feel free to use it.

Michael Irwin

Excellent pic!

White Wagtail Motacilla alba - polyphyletic or paraphyletic
Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba yarrellii
Black-backed Wagtail Motacilla (alba) lugens
Japanese Wagtail Motacilla grandis
White-browed Wagtail Motacilla maderaspatensis
Mekong Wagtail Motacilla samveasnae
African Pied Wagtail Motacilla aguimp
Citrine Wagtail Motacilla citreola - possibly paraphyletic
Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava
Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava flava - paraphyletic
Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea
Cape Wagtail Motacilla capensis
Madagascar Wagtail Motacilla flaviventris
Mountain Wagtail Motacilla clara
The Mekong Wagtail was described as new to science only in 2001.

YUP! 

Not Grey? Not Pied? Not Yellow?

That leaves us with White or Citrine? Which I would not know if they... you know... (ask Donna!)

EEEEEEEE-uuuuuuuu to the 3 feet! Great big ICK!

How do you figure that to be "HOARDING?" 

Or Grey wagtail?

Greys and Yellows confuse me totally - because the "grey" looks "yellow"... go figure. (I can usually do Pieds, but...) OK. I will stick with Pied. Donna??

Close y'all!

The important thing is that she finally admits to doing it herself.  The first step to recovery! 

"Hi, everyone. My name is Donna and I'm..."

Very funny girls! See, I even got the depth wrong, I said 6 inches and it was 3 foot. That's because I was posting at the same time. I just can't  and walk!

Beauty going in box


I can hear her pebble picking
"you can hear  that?"
"K, I'll stop then!"

He left after poop shot.

Did he have the newspaper?

Clarification: I was on the phone with MAK and she was telling me about the Hoarders episode last night. Apparently these people had cats and the "feces" in the house was 6 inches thick. Ok, so I was multi-tasking when I posted these pics. It was suppose to say "He left after "THIS" shot...not "POOP". I even previewed before posting and still didn't catch it. I swear I don't even remember writing POOP.
(I had to fess up).  No more Multi-T for me. 

So Bobbie, the answer is NO!