Gleig, the male Peregrine Falcon at the Terminal not too happy with the NY-DEC getting an egg count.

How can they possibly call her a male? No wonder she looks indignant in the pic. Great pic, though.

Carly, thank you so much for all the information you have provided. I really appreciate that you took the time and trouble to go down to the nest area and report back about what is going on there.

No wonder the peregrines are stressed and on edge. I do wonder if an intruder has perhaps added to this stress level.

It is so sad to watch this happening. Rhea Mae and Tiago are such a wonderful pair.

Each time I checked the nest during the day, the egg was not covered. A couple of times, one of the birds was on the edge of the ledge, but did not go near the egg.

This is the last time I saw the egg being incubated:



Now, just one lonely egg sitting in the snow.

First glimpse of the chick, just to the right of the egg:



The first North American chick of the year:

It is always sad to see eggs which have been lost or abandoned. Still, I think that these three eggs are at least a year old. They are so dried out, chalky white and brittle-looking; they very much resemble very old eggs which I have seen at other sites where they remained in the nest for up to a year and a half.

It is still fairly early, and I am hopeful that Linn and George will be able to have eggs this year.

Hatching is under way at San Jose!

Caught a shift change today; the four eggs were uncovered for only a moment.

Spirit preparing to lay her second egg a little while ago:



Éole waits close by:



The second egg is here!

Alley (banded black/black A/*Y), and her mate 19/K have their first egg, laid on April 1. Hoping for a second egg later today.





One of the birds going into a stoop from the nest box.

The 55 Water Street peregrines have five eggs!

The resident female is Adele, banded black/green *Y/*9. The resident male is Frank, banded black/green 30/AN. Both birds are from New Jersey.

http://www.55water.com/2-25-16-windy-city-falcons-2/

So happy to see the first egg here — was just watching the site. Ralphie came in to check the egg, and seemed very excited. He studied the egg from all angles.

San Francisco has a webcam again!



http://www.pge.com/en/community/falconcam/index.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_falconcam

[Terminator is home!]

Terminator is home!

From the Grand Forks Herald today:

Peregrine life returns to normal in River City

By Brad Dokken

The love triangle that threatened to turn Grand Forks' peregrine falcon nest into a bit of a soap opera has been terminated—you might say—and life appears to be settling back into a normal spring groove atop the UND water tower.

Grand Forks raptor expert Tim Driscoll on Monday said he has confirmed the identity of Terminator, the matriarch of Grand Forks' contribution to the peregrine recovery, who was spotted back in town Thursday.

She also has been seen copulating with Marv, her male counterpart for the past two years.

Peregrine falcon pairs don't migrate together but often return to the same nesting site.

A possible turf war had emerged a couple of weeks ago when a year-old female named Bristol—hatched and banded in 2015 in Winnipeg—showed up vying for Marv's affections before Terminator had returned to the nest box atop the UND water tower.

They'd even been seen doing what the birds do in the spring.

But then a female showing all the markings of Terminator flew back into town Thursday, and that was the end of that.

First and only

Terminator is the first and only female peregrine to nest in Grand Forks and has raised young since 2008, first on top of the Smiley Tower, and since 2010, on the UND water tower.

Driscoll was able to confirm Terminator's band number over the weekend.

Whether the two females ever fought over Marv isn't known for sure, but Bristol now has skipped the country and has taken up residence with a new male falcon in Winnipeg.

Driscoll said he talked to a Winnipeg raptor expert who confirmed the tryst; news travels fast on the falcon front.

Bristol didn't waste any time, either.

"Here's what I'm sure of — Terminator is at the site, she and Marv are getting along well, and Bristol has been ID'd by her band number up in Winnipeg," Driscoll said. "That's exactly what I was hoping: (Bristol) has a positive ID from our end, we know for sure she was here, and now she's in Winnipeg and Terminator is here."

The female was dubbed Terminator in 2006 after she was banded as a chick in Brandon, Man.

Driscoll and others who band peregrines often name the birds because it's easier to remember a name than a band number, which in Terminator's case is T/2. He banded Marv in 2013 in Fargo, naming the male after Fargo TV personality Marv Bossart, who died in April of that year.

Terminator's return to Grand Forks was the earliest ever, but that's no surprise, given the early spring. Previous years, she first was sighted in Grand Forks on April 9, 2008, with subsequent first sightings April 10, 2009; March 27, 2010; April 7 or 8, 2012; March 26, 2012; March 26, 2013; April 6, 2014; and March 29, 2015.

Happy ending

All things considered, the outcome of this peregrine saga was as positive as Driscoll could have wanted.

Terminator's back with her mate, and Bristol appears to have made a quick rebound.

"She's hanging around with an experienced male," Driscoll said. "We'll let that settle in and see what happens."

Call it another success in the storied recovery of a species once on the brink of extinction. Fargo and Grand Forks have the only known nesting peregrines in North Dakota, while Minnesota has more than 50 nesting sites across the state, the Department of Natural Resources says.

Driscoll credits the efforts of captive breeding programs and reintroduction efforts across North America for the species' rebound after the chemical DDT decimated populations in the 1950s. Grand Forks was a latecomer to the recovery story, Driscoll says, but he now looks forward to the peregrines' return every spring.

"As soon as that happens, you get this sense of relief like, 'OK, we're good,' " he said. "I say goodbye to them (every fall) and say, 'see you next year.' "

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/3996670-peregrine-life-returns-normal-river-city

Squawker, born at the Pleasant Prairie nest in Wisconsin and banded black/green 48/M, is still the resident male at this nest.

Nona, born in 2004 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and banded black/green 64/D, is still the resident female.

Nona up at the window yesterday, with her first egg visible in the background:







http://www.epl.org/falconcam/

The Helsingborg pair now have two eggs.

Yesterday, there was one:



Today, there are two:

Looks like there's been a changeover this year!

http://woodmen.typepad.com/falconwatch/2016/03/woodmenlife-has-some-new-neighbors-in-the-nest.html
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Thank you for the link to that Typepad entry, Kris! There is no longer a link visible on my screen, so I thought it had been discontinued.

With all due respect to the people at Woodmen, I think they are a little bit confused. 19/K from Lincoln was at the Woodmen nest in February from about the 15th to the 19th, and I also have photos of him in the nest from February 7 of this year.

However, he returned to his nest in Lincoln before the end of February and has remained there with his mate, Alley.

From the Typepad entry:

3/6:  Falcon-watcher "Lisa" got a good picture of both falcons in the nest, and assuming the one IN the nest is 19K, the falcon perched on the side of the nest would be an unbanded female. Charity, our female from 2015, was unbanded as well.

In that picture, the bird perched on the side of the nest is banded. Since 19/K had returned home before the date of the pic, I think this bird may well be Mintaka, and that the bird in the nest is probably Charity.

Joel Jorgensen at the Lincoln site has confirmed that 19/K is in Lincoln with his mate:

http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2016/03/same-pair/