Lil Dad is such a great little tiercel!

From a few minutes ago:

A fourth chick hatched this morning.

Apparently this little one was not being fed, and has been removed from the nest to be cared for. He/she will be returned to the nest at a later date.

Can't post today's pics of the chicks - Photobucket is down right now.

[Calgary]

Calgary

The resident pair, Callie and Gary, have their second egg. She appeared to be preparing to lay the egg yesterday evening, but then she left. I am not sure whether she laid the egg last night or this morning. This is a different kind of nest tray.








This morning:

I hope Beauty will have a very successful year. She has not had an easy life so far, and she deserves to have everything go smoothly for her this year.

Beauty at 4:04 p.m.:

Well done, Beauty!

Red Girl and CJ are the resident pair at this nest. Red Girl was born at the Harrisburg nest in 2008, and CJ hatched at the Wilmington nest in 2006.

There are three beautiful little chicks, who hatched two days ago. There are still two unhatched eggs.

Beauty with her egg, 3:21 p.m.

There are two chicks, and at least one unhatched egg is visibie. The chicks are being very well cared for.

I am so happy to see Beauty with her first egg. She is one gorgeous falcon, and DC is a very handsome tiercel.

I really enjoyed seeing all the pics posted today.

[Calgary, Alberta]

Calgary, Alberta

Another of the later nests; the pair at the University of Calgary laid their first egg yesterday. Cold weather, a lot of snow, high winds and blizzard conditions may have been a factor.



http://www.ucalgary.ca/peregrine_falcon/video

[Hamilton]

Hamilton

Madame X with her egg this morning; it's great to see the first egg here.





Surge had been waiting at the other end of the ledge; as soon as Madame X left, he couldn't wait to start incubating. The scrape is so deep that Surge almost disappeared at times.





Madame X came back later:

[Wednesday, April 3, 2013The first egg of 2013]

First egg for Spirit and Roger!

From the blog: I translated it from the French.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

The first egg of 2013

It is apparent that without the cameras inside the nest box, it is difficult to know exactly when egg laying took place, how many eggs there might be, etc. But by observing the comings and goings of the two falcons, one can still have a good idea of the important dates, like the laying of the first egg, hatching, etc.

Today, we saw the first sign that an egg has been laid in the nest box. In fact, until now, Roger had not been spending more than a few minutes at a time at the nest box, even when Spirit was not there. Since we had cameras inside the nest in previous years, we have seen that as soon as the first egg has been laid, Roger stays in the nest box to incubate it during the times when Spirit is out of the nest. So, this afternoon, there was Roger spending 30 minutes at the nest, and here is the video captured by the motion detector connected to the telescope in my office:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-QSZBx2rVw#

This is an indication which does not lie! It is likely that the first egg was laid in the morning between 7:20 a.m. and 12:40 p.m. Why not before 7:20? Because Roger went to the nest box around 7 a.m. after having delivered breakfast to Spirit, but he only stayed for a few minutes. Spirit returned to the nest at 7:20 after she had eaten and did not reappear until 12:40, in spite of visits by Roger, who probably wanted to mate, or simply to make sure that everything was going well inside . . .

Spirit and Roger have made us become accustomed to an early first egg in 2010 and 2011. On the contrary, in 2009, I had estimated the arrival of the first egg around the first of April. If this goes in the same way as in previous years, Spirit will lay three more eggs (one each 48-60 hours). We count 33 days of incubation from the time of arrival of the third egg, which gives us a hatch date around Mother's Day, if all goes well . . .

How will we know if there is a hatch? While the falcons sre in incubation mode, they never eat in the nest box. When the first chick emerges from its shell, we will see food brought into the nest box for the first time to fill the tiny, hungry beak! Let's cross our fingers that everything will go well from now on.

This afternoon:

I like the way Tiago stayed with Rhea Mae for a while. Congratulations to both of them on their second egg!