We have a flurry of information to bring you regarding Mariah and Kaver’s offspring, so here we go!

Seneca and Cheyenne
We begin with some really terrific news. Our colleagues at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History have had a falconcam of their own focused on the pair at the Terminal Tower for many years. Now it appears they have another pair in town. Our very own Seneca from 2008 appears to have displaced another female named Ely and taken over a nest site on the Brookpark Road Bridge just outside of Cleveland! Not only that, but she has a mate named Cheynne. He was also hatched in 2008 from a nest in nearby Akron, Ohio.  It hasn’t escaped our notice that both of these falcons carry the name of a Native American tribe.  What a wonderful coincidence!

This news is pretty recent; Seneca was only discovered a couple of days ago by one of the local watchers named Kim. She contacted Chris and Chad Saladin, who’ve been longtime observers (and extraordinary photographers) of the Cleveland area falcons. They were able to read her band and quickly make an ID. Today they published a bunch of photos of Cheyenne and Seneca mating, as well as some solo pictures of each. Here are a couple of Seneca:

Seneca at Brookpark Road Bridge near Cleveland, OH

Seneca Flying Near Brookpark Road Bridge

Isn’t she gorgeous? Our sincere thanks go out to Chris and Chad for the excellent pictures, and to Kim for finding Seneca. You can follow Seneca and Cheyenne as they build their new family on the Seneca thread in our Forum.

Rhea Mae and Tiago

Rhea Mae & Tiago's First Egg of 2010

Rhea Mae and Tiago have laid their first egg at their nest box on the Sheraton Hotel in midtown Toronto.  According to watcher Linda Woods over at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation:

Rhea [Mae] had been spending many nights sitting at the nest ledge. But last night she was on the nest tray. After dark she climbed into the tray and laid down. This morning, egg # 1!

It looks like 2010 will be another productive year for Rhea Mae, Mariah’s daughter from 2006. You can follow all the news about her at the Rhea Mae thread in our Forum.

Quest

Quest has had one of her busiest weeks yet, covering several hundred miles from as far north as Ottawa and Montreal, down south to Lake Erie.  In between she spent a few days at her familiar hunting grounds near the Lennox Power station and at Prince Edward Point.  It’s anyone’s guess as to where Quest will settle down, if she ever decides to stop globetrotting, that is!

View Quest Travels Apr 1- 10 in a larger map
(Zoom in or out on the map by clicking the small + & – signs. Move it around by clicking your mouse button and dragging the map in the desired direction. Click the falcon icons for more information about each location.)

We’re happy to announce that our access to Quest’s transmitter data has been restored. In our absence she hasn’t missed a beat.

Her night time locations are in Chatham, with a couple of data points placing her near a structure that might be a lighthouse at the Stage Harbor inlet. On the 7^th it looks like she spent the night in the 200 block of Cedar Street near Stetson Cove.

Her daytime haunts appear to be the tidal flats just off the Cape south of Stage Harbor, and along the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge. Temperature sensor data, when we receive it, shows that she’s staying warm, doubtless a reflection of the good weather overall in April.

Mike Allen sent an email with an update on Mariah’s condition, which we’ve excerpted here.

I thought I’d let you know that Mariah made Syracuse without incident. Our veterinarian examined her closely and was very grateful for the detailed log of what had been done since she was picked up on Sunday. She was quite feisty even after the long trip and the vet tech commented that “feisty is good.” The concern obviously is the wound at her throat. They wanted to give her some time to settle in before examining further. I’m not sure how often I’ll be updating this situation but I will try to do so as frequently as time allows. My interpretation is that she is in excellent hands and has already made “new friends!”

Keep looking up!

Mike

This news is about as good as any we could expect at this point, and we’re very grateful for the update!

You may be wondering why we haven’t posted any Quest updates recently. The news about Mariah has taken precedence for the past several days, but the real issue is a technical one. We’re currently migrating the Rochester Falconcam to new web servers, and a side effect is that we’ve temporarily lost access to the email account where we receive Quest’s transmitter data. As soon as we get that back we’ll update you on Quest’s latest adventures.