McKenzie Seeds - 2017 / Sol & Hurricane

[The Peregrine Chick]

Heard from RCF and Brandon is still a peregrine-less but as she reminded me, the Brandon birds tend not to return until the first week in April.  Smart bird obviously.  Right now it is 6C but feels like 0C because the wind is gusting from 40 to 60 kph.  Looking at the longer-term forecast, the temps in the first week of April are supposed to be (and feel) between 8-14C - whoo hoo.  Only good thing about today's less than nice weather to be out hunting for peregrines (hard to photograph in this kind of wind!!) is that the wind is from the south.  Tomorrow too, so who knows who might turn up in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, RCF will be keeping an eye out/open for our first returnees out in Brandon.

[RCF]

On April 8th we saw two peregrines at the McKenzie building. The day before that on April 7th we saw a pair of peregrines out at the Tower Nest.  They were harassing ravens that were trying to nest on one of the stacks.  We went back the next day and have been checking periodically and have not seen another peregrine out there since. 

So we figured that the birds we saw at the Tower were more than likely the peregrines we saw at the McKenzie building on April 8th.

 

[RCF]

Earlier in the year we had noticed that ravens had tried to build a nest at the very top of the clock tower. I would imagine it would be way too windy for that. On April 7th I noticed the peregrines nest box was full of sticks and twigs.  The ravens abandoned that probably because they couldn't get in after filling it up.     Anyway the ravens are still nesting on the opposite side of the McKenzie building on one of the fire escapes. They also have three chicks which are almost old enough to fledge.

 

 

[RCF]

April 8, 2017

Sol is back but the female that was here is not banded.     They harassed the ravens a bit but really never bothered them much. The female would dive bomb a fake owl that someone put up on another building to keep the pigeons away.  We found this very amusing! 

Anyway Sol and the unbanded female were doing what peregrines do for three days. The next day April 12th, Hurricane was here and the other female was gone. When we saw Hurricane that day she didn't look like she had any feathers out of place. So not sure if there was a fight between Hurricane and the unbanded female or not.  This is the same day Tracy and Dennis came to empty the sticks out of nest box.



Unbanded female

   

Hurricane

[RCF]

The first day we saw Hurricane she and Sol were already getting down to business.    I do believe they have eggs and are now incubating them.

 

[dupre501]

Thanks for the update! 

[Moonstar]

So glad to hear Hurricane is back.  Thanks for the updates RCF.  Really, really appreciated.

[The Peregrine Chick]

https://twitter.com/mbperegrines/status/864886000547491840

Had to help contractors navigate around the building a bit today so Conservation took the plunge and braved the pigeon-infested tower window to check the nestbox for eggs.  Report is that there are 4 eggs and all look fine though 2 may be a bit smaller than the others. Size doesn't indicate viability - Mistral's egg was very small.  Will be interesting to see how many hatch - Hurricane has a habit of laying four eggs and hatching out 3 chicks.  Last year there were only 2 but that was Sol's first year in town which might have been a factor. 

[RCF]

Good to hear about the four eggs! Hurricane is certainly consistent with her egg laying. 

I was down there today and noticed the mesh was pushed out of the window that conservation looks out to see into the nest box.  I guess the next time they need to look there will probably be more pigeon droppings to step through. The pigeons are notorious for finding holes that they can get into. 

[Kinderchick]

Is that the nestbox? Won't that loose mesh bother the PF's? 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Is that the nestbox? Won't that loose mesh bother the PF's? 

No, not the nestbox (thankfully!) - that is the window where we usually hang the camera for the nestbox.  Last year the window that is usually in the front blew/broke off last year (gods, I think it was only last year).  To replace the whole window structure was not something we could do at the time and not without approval, so we installed chicken wire to keep the ever-present and ever-invading pigeons from getting inside.  Mostly it worked, or at least until the wire got mangled.    We have some other plans in the contemplation phase to deal with our pigeon problems but they are on the back burner until it quietens down some.

[RCF]

It looks like we have a hatch from the behavior of Hurricane and Sol. 

In with prey
               

Sol leaving


Hurricane feeding
               

Hurricane out with remnants


Hurricane

[Shocka88]

Great news RCF.    Thx so much. I was in the city yesterday & knew it was about hatch time but didn't have time to take a look. Sigh!      Your pics are amazing!

[carly]

Congratulations on getting the photo evidence and on the hatch(es)! 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Thanks RCF - knew you'd get the evidence it there was any to get!! Well done