Callidora Update – 1/21/12

We have not yet received any updates about Callidora’s condition, but Kate St. John has posted more information about the area where Callidora was found on her blog. You can check it out here: Kate St. John’s Blog

Also, we are inquiring how we can get donations to the rehabber to help with expenses for Callidora’s care. Many of you have shown interest in doing this. As soon as we get this information, we will share it with you.

It amazes us here at Rochester Falconcam how entwined the Rochester falcons have become with the Pittsburgh falcons. We have Beauty, Dorothy’s daughter and Unity, Dorothy’s granddaughter. How incredible is it that Callidora ended up so close to her Grandma Dorothy. It is definitely a small falcon world out there.

We will continue to post updates as we receive them.

Many thanks to all that have helped Callidora, from the person who found her and got her much needed help to the rehabbers and vets that are taking care of her. Thank you!

Get well soon Callidora! Lots and lots of prayers and healing thoughts are coming your way! 🙂

We received this from our friend Kate St. John in Pittsburgh, PA.

“Callidora, hatched in 2010 at Times Square nest in Rochester, NY, was found injured in Monessen, PA today (1/20/12). Her wing is badly injured. She is currently at a rehabber in PA & will be xrayed to see how severe the damage is.”

This is all we know at this time.

Kate has promised to share with us all updates she receives from the rehabber.

Any updates on her progress will be posted here on Imprints.

We here at the Rochester Falconcam wish Callidora a speedy recovery and hope that she is able to be released soon.

There hasn’t been much to report, but here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening this summer . Although there were no young fledglings to watch, the Rochester Falcon Watchers have been busy keeping an eye on the two nest sites here in Rochester, NY. Beauty remains in the downtown area, and is seen frequently on camera at the nest box on the Times Square building. Unity is seen almost daily at Kodak Park. Currently, Archer seems to prefer the company of Beauty and the downtown area, but is seen periodically with Unity. The Watchers will continue to report their sightings.

The Rochester Falcon Legacy continues to grow. Three of Mariah & Kaver’s daughters successfully nested in Ontario, Canada.

Rhea Mae (2006) & Tiago at the Sheraton, Downtown Toronto. There were four successful fledges this year. Sunshine (female) was first to fledge and she did extremely well. It wasn’t long before she was chasing Rhea Mae and Tiago around the high rise buildings that surround the Toronto Sheraton. The Canadian Peregrine Foundation (CPF) volunteers were quite amazed by her flight skills. Next came William (male), Kate (female) and Cinnamon (male) . Sadly William and Kate did not make it. But, Sunshine and Cinnamon are still seen on camera now and then.

Linn (2007) & Reuben at the Scarborough/Yellow Pages nest site successfully raised three eyases named Rhiannon (female), Jet (male) and Striker (male). All fledged successfully. Many reports and pictures have come in showing how well these three have been doing.

Quest (2008) & Kendal at the Toronto/Don Mills nest site. Happily Quest has finally settled down from her wanderings. She and Kendal chose the building across from Harlequin Romance headquarters. The folks at Harlequin took the young Peregrine couple into their hearts. They contacted Mark Nash of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation when they first arrived. Mark and the CPF folks quickly sprang into action and a new nest tray was installed. Quest seemed quite familiar with the nest tray, and laid one egg, after losing her first egg on the ledge. Harlequin set-up a camera and pointed it at the nest tray. Falcon fans around the world witnessed the young eyas named Harlequin aka Harlie, break out of her shell and grow into a beautiful fledgling. Quest, Kendal and Harlequin continue to visit the nest tray.

We are very thankful to Mark Nash and all the folks from CPF who take such good care of our girls. We applaud their efforts and special thanks to the volunteer Watchers who put in so many hours watching the young fledglings take their first flights. Also, thanks to the Harlequin folks who made Quest, Kendal and Harlequin a part of their family. Thank you all.

One more thing. Yes, Quest still has her transmitter. We’re not quite sure how much longer it will remain on her. I do believe her transmitter readings are still being received, but of course they are currently all from the same area.

If you’ve been watching the cameras at the Times Square building or following the recent reports from our fledge watchers, then you know that after 44 days of incubation, Beauty and Archer began disposing of the eggs in their nest box. All of the eggs turned out to be unviable. At the same time, watchers have reported that Unity has not been incubating her eggs for over a week. So at this time it seems unlikely that we’ll have any eyases in Rochester this summer.

It is possible that Beauty and Archer could begin laying a new clutch of eggs. It’s unusual for Peregrines to double-clutch, but it’s not unheard of. As for Unity, it’s anyone’s guess what she’ll do. Undoubtedly the stress of having their nest sites relatively close together, combined with Archer splitting his time between both nests, contributed to this less-than-desirable outcome.

While we wait to see what will happen here, the Rochester peregrine falcon legacy continues a couple of hours north in Toronto, Canada. Rhea Mae (b. 2006) and her mate Tiago are raising four eyases. They were recently banded by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. Rochester Falconcam team member Carol Phillips attended the banding and took plenty of pictures of the happy event. Not too far away, her sister Linn (b. 2007) and mate Ruben are raising 3 young eyases. And after settling down earlier this year, our cyber-falcon Quest (b. 2008) has been incubating a single egg which just hatched within the past day or two. You can see more pictures of Quest, Kendal and their new eyas HERE.

So even though things haven’t gone the way we’d like in Rochester, there’s plenty of good news this year for falcons that were hatched right here.

Beauty laid her third egg today. We’re not exactly sure when, because she spent a lot of time in the nest box and she didn’t let us see what was going on. Both Beauty and Archer have been on the eggs most of the day. That might be due to the cooler weather, or it could signal the start of “hard” incubation. If that’s the case, then we should be able to expect one more egg, for a total of four. Since the most recent pair of eggs have come at a more-or-less typical peregrine pace, if Beauty does lay another egg we should see it in the next 2 to 3 days.

In other news, the recent location data from Quest’s satellite transmitter has been nearly stationary for the past several days. Some observers began to speculate that perhaps her transmitter had finally fallen off. But earlier today our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation posted that two falcons, one outfitted with a transmitter, had been spotted on a commercial building in the city of York, Ontario Canada, just east of Toronto. The address for the sighting matched exactly to the location data we’ve been getting from Quest, and Bruce Massey, one of the CPF volunteers, was able to confirm her ID band numbers! It turns out that Quest has been hanging out with a handsome tiercel. Read the full account from CPF watcher Tracy Simpson HERE. Needless to say we’re thrilled to learn that Quest may finally have found a place to settle down, and that she could be starting a family of her own. We’ll keep a close watch on this story, and bring all of the details to you as we learn more!

Quest has continued to stay around Prince Edward Point with frequent trips into nearby Kingston Ontario this month. Recently our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation posted about Quest visiting the Kingston Harbor on January 4. Happily CPF observer Rachel McRae was able to get some pictures of Quest. We’re reprinting them here with her kind permission.

We’re working with the CPF to see if they have larger pictures they can share with us, and if we can get them we’ll bring them to you.

Quest is looking great, and both she and her transmitter seem to be going strong! CPF reporter Big Frank also let us know that workers at the Pickering Nuclear Power plant have been seeing Quest in the past few days, so she may be returning to familiar ground. Be sure to check back for updates.

Quest must be having a good time at Prince Edward Point because her transmitter data display some of the closest clustering that we’ve seen since we began tracking her in 2008. In fact, many of the locations over the past two weeks have been so close together that we thought she might have finally ditched her transmitter.

There are a few data points that are spread far enough apart to show us that she’s still moving around. But one thing we can say is that she’s not moving very far. Except for a trip to Kingston on the 26^th, she’s moved only a couple of miles. It looks like Quest has found a cozy place to stay for the winter, and that she’s content enough not to wander. Unless she decides to make another significant move– back to Pickering or the Lennox power station for instance– we may be in for a boring winter.

No surprises for Quest. She’s been bouncing between Pickering and Prince Edward Point for the past several weeks, but the most recent few days’ locations have placed her squarely at PEP. The weather’s been pretty nasty and cold, with one of the lowest temperature sensor readings we’ve seen recorded on the 15^th, a chilly 9.65°C. Hopefully Quest is finding someplace to stay out of the wind and keep herself warm.

Our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation sent us this image of a banded Peregrine that was spotted at Frenchman’s Bay, right next door to the Pickering power plant where Quest has been hanging out. The picture was taken by Denis Gauthier on the afternoon of September 12^th and reproduced here with his kind permission. Quest’s tracking data from that day places her squarely at Pickering.

Big Frank, one of the CPF’s falcon watchers, worked with Mark and Marion Nash to see if they could identify this bird. An enlargement of the picture yielded an all black band with 33/Y ID. It turns out this guy isn’t far from home. He’s Kendal, a tiercel hatched in 2009 at Toronto’s King Street nest.

We haven’t heard of any repeat sightings of young Kendal, so there’s no way of knowing whether he’s still in the area or if indeed this is the male who’s been hanging out with Quest. But if it is, it’d be another wonderful Rochester-Toronto connection in the Peregrine world. In any case, he’s one good looking bird!

A huge note of thanks to Big Frank for letting us know about Kendal, and to Denis for his great pictures, a couple more of which we’ve included below.

     

As she’s done in the past, Quest threw us a curve ball. After weeks at Pickering, she suddenly decided to take a trip east to Prince Edward Point. She stayed a couple of days then returned to Pickering, but not before making a stop-over in Port Hope on the 18^th. Maybe she decided to take a flight down memory lane now that she seems to be settling down.