Hamilton Peregrine Falcons 2010 Season
 

They are back! Well they never really left...Our resident falcons dont migrate so they stick to the area pretty much all season but regardless I feel its important to welcome them back for another season of nail biting!! :thumbs up


Heres is an update from today! I have enclosed a picture for those of you that may not have seen our falcons from last year!

I'll keep you all posted as things proceed!
Here is the link to the live cam...

[url]http://falcons.hamiltonnature.org/?wide[/url]



WAY TO GO MADAME X - RIGHT ON SCHEDULE!

March 29, 2010 - For the sixteenth year in a row Peregrine Falcons have laid an egg in the Sheraton Hamilton nest. Thanks to an alert from our friends at the Virgin Mobile counter in Jackson Square, which is just a few feet from our TV monitor, we have been able to confirm that around 10:30 this morning Madame X deposited what we hope is the first of several eggs of the 2010 season. This is a year to the day after the first egg appeared last year. Stay tured! If all goes well the next egg will arrive in 24-36 hours. The photo at left shows Madame X at 12:45 today. Unfortunately her shadow is blocking the camera's view of the egg, but it was easily visible by telescope from the Stelco Tower.

Is that Madame X sitting on the egg in the nest cam shots? She's such a good Mommy! :lovestruck:

Great Winston :thumbs up....I was about to pm you any day now to ask when we could expect to see Madame X again.....1 year to the day, what a timepiece she must have built in.

Hazel yes thats our Queen! she will pretty much be on those eggs until they hatch or she decides to give Dad (Surge) some time which she does! sometimes its hilarious because she will let Dad sit on the eggs and when she returns he doesnt want to get off them so she sometimes has to get mad at him and then he gets off rather quickly! :laughing:

Sorry all the men out there but the women wear the pants in the Falcon world!

Chris! I have been waiting patiently for them to come on line cause I see the falcons all year round an am generally looking for any news on them!

She laid an egg exactly one year ago to today! God their body clock is right on schedule!! :thumbs up

Is this the same male from year to year, Winston? I forget how monogamous falcons are...are they lifetime paired or just seasonally paired?

Life tiem paired but falcon fatality's are great so it sometimes last a long time but Madame X is on her 3rd or 4th mate now? The big hurdle for them is also territory battles! if you loose you can loose your mate! I think this is the 4th year for Surge and her.

Thanks for the pictures. My ornithology professor would love to know about this nest, if he doesn't already. He is a genus on birds. It is also my favorite class. Beautiful picture.

ACO22

ACO22 I actually have a pretty awesome list of live web cams anything from hummingbirds to sites in Africa...I was checking out one a few months ago and it was a live bear den! pretty cool! I will have to dig the list up again :thumbs up...

I volunteer every year but couldnt last summer because of my surgury but I am anxious to get back to it this year! They are truly amazing to watch and to see how the family interacts with mom and dad is pretty cool! we have had a year in the past where there were 3 females and 1 male and I have to say he was the typical little bro! a true troublemaker

[QUOTE=Winston;902524]ACO22 I actually have a pretty awesome list of live web cams anything from hummingbirds to sites in Africa...I was checking out one a few months ago and it was a live bear den! pretty cool! I will have to dig the list up again :thumbs up...[/QUOTE]

Oooo-Ooooo Post pleeez!!!!

no problem just give me some time to dig'er up!:thumbs up

Are they able to tell where the offspring end up, Winston?

Sometimes...it depends on whether they survive after fledging and leaving the area. They are banded and we do get some updates now and then..

Quite a few of them have made their homes outside of here into the USA!! :thumbs up We have one named Stelco after our steel plant and she lives in Lansing Michigan...we had a one legged falcon named Dundas a few yrs ago...he survived and tried to live a successful life and then one day he was gone...:( left his mate and there have been no successful id's of a 1 legged falcon! I would sooo love to attend one of the bandings....:thumbs up you get to hold them when they are just youngins!! I keep mentioning it but they never seem to invite me..:D One of these days!

Madame X is getting up there in age for falon...I think she is 12 now! thats good! the mortality rates is really high.....urban landscape kills alot of them and also the territorial battles.....sad but part of it...they are really making a comeback....they have been moved up to the threatened list from endangered now that we dont use DDT anymore!

Here is Stelco from Lansing MI...taken way back in 2001 but she is still their as of last year! she is a real pretty girl..kinda blue in color....

She is very nicely marked! :lovestruck:

I used to help band hawks--I remember the first time they let me hold one I darn near let it get away :o They said 'gently but firmly'...and I guess I was more gentle than firm! :laughing: It [I]was[/I] a thrill, though. :o

Oh Hazel I am soo jealous! that would be a thrill...mind you I got to see some of Madame X's children a couple of years ago up close around 15 ft away...pretty cool to see them outside the binoculars and that close! hard to miss the one that year...her name was blue foot..she had a respiratory type infection but made it through...her feet stayed blue and not yellow!! when I got to see them it was up on the 24th floor of the building where only special peeps get to go and its way up there where the birds are much more visable than from ground level! I loved it...:thumbs up

You got to hold one.....:D are Hawks loud/vocal while you have a hold of them?

Not the red-tails and kestrels we mostly got. I don't remember hearing a peep out of them once we had them in hand. Thankfully, very little biting, either. :D

You should hear the falcons...OMG you would think there was a slaughter happening or something...they often spray a little bit of water on their face and in their mouth and it seems to calm them down.. funny to hear one start and its horrible and then the others will sometimes chime right in there! :thumbs up

I'm trying to remember, but I'm pretty sure ours were quiet... :o But all of ours were solo--not nesting season and not paired up with a parent for hunting education, so they might just have been quiet because there was no one to hear :shrug:

The alternate theory is that they were shooting their beaks off the whole time and I just don't remember it because I'm getting [I]old![/I] :laughing:

Any updates fer us Winston :D

We have 4 Eggs! Yippeee...sorry for the late update! I's been busy!

[B][I]April 10, 2010 - Lead Monitor Audrey Gamble reports: Once again Madame X has laid four eggs in the Sheraton Hamilton nest. The wet and cold weather has kept her very close to the scrape all week, and it was cold and windy up there again today, but at 13:35 she left the nest and let us have a good look the four big brown bruisers in the image at left! What pulled her off the nest was the need to chase the juvenile Peregrine, who is still hanging around. Surge had visited the nest just before Madame X departed but he must have stayed close by. When she took off after the youngster, he appeared out of nowhere to tend the eggs. This is the second time we have seen her leave the nest to pursue the stranger. Then, obviously pumped full of adrenaline, and just because she could, Madame X knocked the stuffings out of a passing Turkey Vulture. We have had a lot of TVs through the downtown the last few days but they have not gotten a rise out of our birds until today. When MX was chasing the immature I had a sense of them being similar in size, so the visitor could be a female? [/I][/B]

All I could think was "poor, unsuspecting turkey vulture!" :o :laughing:

Glad to hear that the nest is being well-tended! 4 eggs!! :highfive:

Thanks for the update Winston...sounds like Madame X had herself a bit of fun....There were 4 eggs last year wasn't there?

Yes Chris she averages between 4-5 eggs. As a falcon ages the eggs get less vibrant in color and they produce less eggs. Madame X is an awesome Mommy and most years she has 4 offspring. Sometimes the weather in March and April affect the eggs volatility but generally its 4-5.

They also hatch within 1-2 days of each other too! :thumbs up

No updates today but I am trying to find out if they have identified the immature intruder! I'll keep you posted.

Winston,this is soo exciting and also nervy..is there any predators that could nab the eggs,or the chicks,when they are born??
I suppose the Falcons are very good at protecting their nest,if Madame X can knock out a Turkey Vulture.
Here in my humble backyard,I have birdhouses and several nests,I cry every time a nest has been raided..most of the time by Blue-Jays:(

Chico no worries ! its really sad but reality...

Madame X is one heck of a fighter! I have seen her take out many prey..A red tail hawk, she chased a golden eagle out of downtown a couple of years ago, the turkey vultures are the worst trouble but she has no trouble defending her nest.

Thats one of my worst fears...since I have been following the nest I always worry about intruders and if another female makes an attempt either that bird or Madame X will die or basically loose her territory and it sometimes the mate?? such a brutal reality eh? I certainly dont want to be around when that happens! :(

Anymore Pics Winston :D

Well Chris we have had a weed problem in the nest for a few yrs..:D As yoou can tell from this pic its getting harder to see the nest. Every year once the chicks get banded the MNR guys pulls the weed for us but it keeps coming back...This yr its HUGE! not sure what they are gonna do about it since its very hard to get near the nest while Madame X is incubating....unless you have a death wish...:laughing:

Is that dark part Madame X,it's strange to see weeds that high up,but I guess they grow everywhere:confused:

I think it was planted by Madame X once she realized where the camera was. Just for a little privacy, don't ya know! :D

:laughing: Its been there for years and they pull it out every yr and it keeps coming back! This is the largest it has been since I have been volunteering!
Last year the babies used it for some shade so I guess its not a bad thing...well for us it is.....things are pretty boring right now..many females are brooding their eggs!

Heres an awesome shot someone on the website took of Madame X! :thumbs up to tie you over for now!

Chris here is a special pic just for you....hope it doesnt slow you down too much!:thumbs up