T2 in Grand Forks

Looks like the Smiley Face Tower has cause to smile these days. Though we don't know how many chicks have hatched, from the behaviour of T2 and Bear, they have chicks. The Grand Forks pair, like most peregrine pairs in North America, don't have a webcam on their nest. I know this sounds amazing considering the number of peregrine nest cams there are these days, but in fact most projects and most nest sites don't have cameras on them. Because of where T2's and Bear's nest is located (on a water tower with a smiley face painted on it), its not so easy to get a look inside the nest. I mention this because, it came as a bit of a surprise to some of our webcam viewers, that the cam isn't just an educational tool, but an essential recovery tool as well. Where Trey and Princess nested this year on the eastside of the Hotel is a particularly difficult location to be able to observe/monitor the birds. The Kensington Building across the street is really only place where you can see what is going on, but that means interrupting office staff trying to do their jobs so that I can borrow their window on a regular basis. The webcams - both the spycam and this year's new Falcon Cam, have enabled me to identify the birds when they first arrived, observe courting behaviour and egg laying dates, assess environmental risks (the snow and wind in this case) and in the end to be able to initiate a rescue of the chicks. Without the cam, none of this would have been possible.


T2 (Terminator), 14 June 2008
photo: D Lambeth, Grand Forks, ND

So, getting back to T2 and Bear and their new kids in Grand Forks, without a camera, the Grand Forks project have had to watch for minute changes in behaviour to determine if the eggs have hatched and how old chicks are. One of the things they have been watching is T2 in the box sitting with her upper body quite high. Remember watching Trey "shade" the chicks with his body, basically standing or crouching over rather than lying on (or brooding) the chicks? From that, its a pretty good guess that the chicks are less than 10 days old. Older than that they are able to thermoregulate on their own and are more mobile and would be able to move themselves out of the sun and T2 and Bear would need to "shade" less. As the weather was warm, and she was shading them, the chicks are probably closer to a week old. On the couple of warmer days we had, both Princess and Trey were quite happy leaving their week-old chicks uncovered for short periods of time. I believe Dave and Jackie are looking to band the birds near the end of next week, will keep you all informed on their plans!