I’m going to be away from next Tuesday, May 14 until Friday July 19. I’m going to a month in Spain (guitar and language workshops, plus some bird watching in the Pyrenees) and week in France with my daughter and grand-daughter (the Lascaux caves, plus Bordeaux), then three weeks in UK visiting family and friends. So I doubt if I will be posting again until I get back.
Scott has been travelling in southern Australia, but will be back soon and is working hard on getting a new website up and running (and hopefully our recording software as I would like to start recording the breeding behaviour again this year). If the software still doesn’t work, I might try to use the youtube with its four hour rewind, plus Movavi screen recorder. With these, and help from you guys putting timestamps of coming and going on the chat (or new website if that’s possible), I should be able to get reasonable date. In the meantime, my colleague Rosemary is starting to do some analysis on the prey images – if unidentifiable, she will be sorting them into five size categories.
Meanwhile all is well with our couple, Diamond and Xavier. Occasional food bringing (which should start ramping up over the next two months), plus courtship bowing and ‘dancing’. Diamond often sleeps in the box at night, mostly with a very full crop, and often on her ‘perch’.
If you are not already on to this, you might be interested in the situation in Monarch Place, Springfield, Massachusetts. A young female, probably the daughter from last year’s brood, but this cannot be confirmed, has moved into the adults nest when the first egg was lain. I haven’t been able to confirm who actually laid the eggs, but I assume it was the adult. After some disconcerting scenes whereby the juvenile pushed the adult off the eggs (but wouldn’t budge when the adult female returned), they do seem to have come to some sort of accommodation. The juvenile has been bringing in food, but didn’t know how to feed the youngsters (two egggs have hatched successfully despite the turmoil!) and the adult appears to be actually teaching her ‘daughter’ to feed the babies. Very unusual situation. Here are some videos below:
JUVENILE INCUBATING. Adult female trying to move her
JUVENILE BETTER AT SHIFTING ADULT!
Video: https://youtu.be/NgTqLRq3XxY
NEXT STAGE: Mother takes over
Video: https://youtu.be/HdYBQBkRnPw
LAST SEEN: Co-operative feeding, two chicks
Video: https://youtu.be/rlEHKIuz-9U
Anyway, we’ll have our own dramas to deal with when the new season eventuates – courtship in July/August. Egg-laying late August (generally), so watch this space.
Here is an email from Megan Fulton in Canada with details of the above site – and other happenings that you might wish to follow up. Bye for now. Cilla
MEGAN’s EMAIL
My e-mail is going to be temporarily shutdown tomorrow, Sunday. So, that means any you send to me will be delayed a few hours till tomorrow evening, not a big deal. Will check on Monday am. While watching ATP Mens Tennis from Madrid, Spain, starting at 4am Calgary time. Also will be setting up a new micro computer (Windows 8.1, but only cost about $150 Cdn $ ($125 US$, uses HDMI connection Monitor, IO GEAR dock to enable wired keyboard. That should keep me out of trouble.
Will just have to watch the peregrine falcons in the Edmonton & Genesee snows, each of 3 cameras have them sitting on 4 eggs apiece. Stumbled across another site, where the juvenile female from last year refused until hungry to get off her mother’s new batch of egg. That’s at Springfield Massachusetts (sp?). Live cam, no sound there, no Infra Red for night viewing. Via Youtube, “Monarch Place Live Falcon Cam”,
LIVE CAM AT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWDKR3ltzwQ
Just checked again: mom & other tussling, What a drama! At least 1 has hatched, view at about 1:15pm EST, 90 min ago at 12:45pm MT.
Genesee has new PTZ camera for recording/streaming. Strobe light at night is disconcerting, focus needs adjustment. Only 480p quality. Have to view via 34″ TV acting as 2nd (additional) monitor to see properly.
Weber & Misericordia sites down or off-line this year. Construction at the former, no reason given for the latter.
3 new babies at Anacapa Island, hatched over last 3-4 days, remaining egg probably a “Dudley”, i.e. failed to hatch, for whatever reason, and since I think (but not know for sure) that it was the first laid egg of the 4, if not hatched by Monday, unlikely to be viable.
Watching the constitutional crisis in US building to a head. Former adviser to Trump, Steve Bannon, now attacking Pope Francis, is currently living in Italy. Yikes!
That element is clearly poisoning Canadian politics, like a mist of Agent Orange drifting across the border. Allusion to Trump (orange make-up and hair dyes is intentional.
On the bright side, a Northern Flicker has been announcing his amorous wishes by jack-hammering on something metallic on my roof. Sounds just like an electric screw driver being used.
Cheers,
Megan
Thanks for the update, Cilla. I’m really glad you posted the Monarch Place infor and videos here, Cilla, because I’m having a terrible time trying to find out much about the nest site, and a bizarre situation like this one really ought to be recorded somewhere!
I’m still faithfully watching the adventures of Diamond and Xavier – we YouTube falcon-folk shall all keep an eye on them while you’re away 🙂 Hopefully Scott will drop in to the chat occasionally, when he has time.
Have a fabulous time travelling to new places and catching up with friends and family.
Had MRI on my hip today, which I doubt will last two months, but fingers crossed. I’m not in a hurry to go up the 112 steps to the nest box, I must say!
If you have time and inclination, screenshots of prey arrivals would be most welcome! I get back July 19th and will be back on deck on the Monday 22nd or next day.
Thanks for all your input into the project. It’s very much appreciated!
Cilla
Bon Voyage, Cilla – I do hope the hip doesn’t give you too much trouble while you’re away.
I contacted the Massachusetts Wildlife people to ask a bit about the Monarch Place nest. An obliging person provided the long form history of the nest, and also mentioned that they hope to band the chicks on 23 May. As the chicks are so undersized – they’re only being fed 3, perhaps 4 times a day, and only small meals, seemingly because of the ongoing power struggle between Mum and Junior. I fear for their survival. If they last until 23 May I don;t suppose they’ll be big enough for banding. If they DO last, I imagine they’ll be checked out by the Wildlife people. Anyway – here’s the long form history of the adults sighted at the nest:
Thank you for reaching out and watching the camera! They are an amazing species and this year, the Monarch Camera is monitoring some very unique behavior. In terms of history, here is the long form for the adults at this site.
F-1 987-27706, 4B2 on red Hacked in Toronto, Ontario – 1985; Seen in Springfield on Monarch Place Bldg throughout June & July 1987 (photographed 22 June), and in Boston on 4, 6, 7, 14, 17, 18, & 24 Aug 87, 23 & 29 Sept. 1987 on Prudential & Christ. Sci. Church Adm. Bldg. A pair, presumed to include this bird, were present at the Christian Science Administration Bldg through 12 Oct. Seen 1 February 1988 in Springfield. Seen 15 & 20 Feb 88 at Logan Airport, Boston w/ male A40A. Seen in Springfield in Jan & Feb 89 & began nest scraping 03-11-89; post season scraping 09-25-89; in tray 02-09-90. Hit glass & killed 15 Feb 1995.
F-2 1807-06422, 4/D black over red Banded on the Varazono Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn & Staton Isl., NY – 1992; seen in nest tray w/ male 02-21-95 six days after 1st female was killed, also seen 04-29-96, 02-15-97, 02-10-98, 02-25-99, 05-12-00, 05-25-04, 2005+
F-3 1807-76432, E/7 black/green. Banded at the Federal Reserve Bank, Boston 06-02-04. Identified at Monarch Place nest tray 04-10-06 (first seen in March), 07, 05-23-12.
F-5 1687-00569, 48/AR black/green. Banded at the Ben Franklin Bridge, Philadelphia, PA (lat-long 39.95352, -75.13738) on 05-31-11. Remnants of green tape on Service band. First identified 05-14-14. Color band first read on 05-20-16, 05-30-17, 06-01-18.
M-1 816-93507, C58C on black w/ red tape (from hacking). Hacked in Albany, NY – 1987; First seen in Springfield 03-08-89, 07-09-89, 05-05-90, 05-08-91, 05-17-92, 05-19-93, 05-12-94, 02-21-95, 04-29-96, 06-04-97, 06-08-98. Struck power line on Wilcox St, Springfield, nearly severing left wing, & died 10-30-98.
M-2 unbanded, seen 1999 – 2007, 05-20-16, 04-27-17, 06-01-18.
Must be really cold overnight in Orange tonight. Someone’s huddled up in the corner. Hope they don’t get used to that spot and lay the eggs there .. can hardly see a thing.
Csilla hope you’re enjoying your travels!
Hi, I’ve just had my month in Spain and am off to France by train this morning (just a three hour trip). I tried to access the website as an administrator, but was denied access, so will need to contact Scott about that.
Anyway, I’ve had lots of close encounters with raptors (and other creatures, of course) and have put some pictures on the google hangout called Orange CSU NSW Peregrine Falcon.
https://hangouts.google.com/webchat/u/0/frame?v=1560366365&hl=en&pvt=AMP3uWbit9mKAqJnj4rWdEK4WGfl0MGwOYcw9XKfG9B3-8voQJEOP0ZEaQwEc-YI4oAy6fxGnpCGgpoiNNTVYmFAALSMc_z2LQ%3D%3D&prop=gmail#tgtn_azbd7n
Bye for now