Oh gees, how could they not intervene?  Those kids won't have a chance, she'll knock them out of the nest if she can.  I remember a nest in Ohio similar situation to this, 2 of the kids died I think and only 1 survived due to being rescued. 

DC was just visiting again just now 

A billion birds have disappeared from North America since 1970, and a third of bird species across the continent are threatened with extinction, a new report says.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/state-of-north-americas-birds-mckenna-1.3587716

It's this year Annette.  Radisson has laid her eggs elsewhere - still in the territory but they aren't disclosing the location to protect her and the eggs.  Apparently workers went out on the roof as she was in the box getting ready to lay an egg so she bolted - she was so close to laying that they said she likely didn't intend to drop the egg elsewhere but it is what is unfortunately.  It took them several days to find her after that.

Maybe he's just checking in to show any other pefa's out there that this belongs to him and Beauty?  I know right now in Edmonton at the University, the female was spooked by humans right as she was about to lay eggs and so she flew off and has laid them elsewhere - instead of the box she has used for years.  Long story short, another pefa has been visiting the box and the male has had to chase it off a few times already.  So he's back and forth between where his mate has laid her eggs and the nest box to keep anyone else from 'moving in'.

New update from Bruce on CPF:

With the weather and strong wind that was causing my scope to shake and my eyes to water I struggled for a band read yet I did manage to get a partial band number. The solid black recovery band was W over 7 something.  Those two alpha numerics along with the red tape that was clearly visible were enough to conclude that this was most likely McKinney, the bird I had seen on this territory in December.

Despite all of these changes Quest is taking incredible care of the chicks.  They are well fed and looked after as witnessed during my two visits there. 

Full details at CPF:

http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/w/

I just checked in today to see how the kids were doing and just happened to see the male on cam.  Like you I saw a heart and thought..oh it's Skye but then I saw his legs and both legs were dark bands.  Then I saw other things that were different ..subtle differences.  On my work pc I just saw dark on both legs.  Wasn't until I got home tonight and onto my good home pc with the better graphic cards that I saw 'red' on one leg and black on the other.

I'm sure CPF will let us know what is going on.  It was just a fluke that I saw them on cam.  Whoever it is, she's comfortable with him.  All 4 times he was there, so was she..she was inside feeding the kids and he waited patiently outside the box for her.

I didn't know stuff was going on here save for what was posted here the other day about a falcon dive bombing Quest... I had no idea. I hope my Skye is okay, I still remember him as a juvie down on the lower roof top looking at me trying to figure out how to get back up to the nest.  

New tiercel on cam all day today, black on left leg and red tape on right leg.  He was with Quest earlier today 3 times.

He's on cam right now if you're watching.

It used to be that we only saw it during breeding season and that may be because we didn't have cams to watch year round like we do now.  It seems the past few years we're seeing displacements at different times of the year.  It was assumed that they were only driven by raging hormones in the Spring when in fact securing a territory of their own may be just as strong of a motivator as producing offspring is.  I suppose when you think about it, both go hand in hand - you secure a territory and a mate and then you can produce offspring

There could be trouble here, I was informed yesterday that a 3rd was dive bombing Quest! Does anyone have any other info?? Looks like Skye at the nest now! 1:57 pm

We had a third in territory on Thursday as well.  Lucky dive bombed the heck of the poor falcon and both he and OC drove it out of the territory.  Lots of singles looking for homes this year.

 

Eyas pinwheel...still can't get a good enough look to guess if we have any blue-foots this year

For decency's sake I'm not posting one picture I just saw, but suffice it to say that I think that at least one of them is a girl.   

 

Studies have proven that kids that kill and torture animals will eventually grow up to kill humans.  I don't know why we bother saving humans like that, sure hope they catch them before they hurt someone else. 

How awful for the poor birds  

We certainly live in a 'toxic' world and effects on humans is also not good.  When I was in University, one of the environmental courses I took went into the adverse effects of toxins on humans and it was quite enlightening to say the least.

In spite of it all though, humans populations have grown beyond what the planet can naturally sustain.  Other species unfortunately are declining and many are going extinct.  I think the effects on them have been far more harsh than on us.  We soldier on but they continue to die out. 

We can prevent humans from being exposed to Superfund sites by isolating the area and educating people to stay away but the other species don't know and understand that they shouldn't be nesting there. 

 

I've read that Hope is around 8 years old, nested at the Tarentum Bridge for a few years but only fledged 2 plus the mates she had, abandoned her.  It was posted on FB that Hope was born at a Super Fund site along the James River and it's something the PGC is looking into.  Maybe this explains what's wrong with her?

I expect it does explain a lot.  I am doing some googling on it this morning and here is just once excerpt from an article I found where they actually did extensive research on the effects of birds breeding at Superfund sites:

Tissue samples taken from birds in these areas contained enough Aroclor 1268 to cause a number of adverse effects, including lower egg production, physical and physiological abnormalities in offspring and immune system disorders.

Am currently browsing an article I found that talks about 'aberrant' parenting behaviors - I got 104,000 hits on my search and these are just first two I've opened.