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.”
