The female is a feisty bird. She remained on the ledge while Pat had his head and arm out through the hole at the back of the ledge, and he had to be careful she did not attack his hand when he introduced the artificial egg.
The male is four years old and was raised at an artificial nest site. The female, also raised at an artificial nest site, is two years old, and this is presumably her first nesting. Both birds have red bands on the right leg and aluminum bands on the left leg.
Pat says that there is still a good chance that the third egg will hatch as it may have been laid as many as six days after the first. He will recheck the ledge later this week or the first of next to check on the hatchlings and the third egg. He also said that, in addition to the two hatchlings at the University, there are four downtown and at least two at the Balzac nest.
Checked the peregrine diaries for 1997 and 1996 and found that the 1997 eggs hatched ca. June 10-12 and the 1996 eggs on June 19-20, so even though it seemed that the Peregrines got a bit of a late start this year because of the death of last year's male and his mate not making it back, the hatchlings arrived in good time.
The chicks will be banded in about 3 weeks time - when they are strong and able to defend themselves against poor Pat. Although we had a broom to guard against the defending mom, she actually hopped on top of the broom as I held it against her and wasn't at all fazed by this. Dad was taking dives in front of the ledge, but it is too narrow for him to get a good run at Pat while he was on the ledge.
Family is intact now - hopefully they have all calmed down again. The 3 little guys (can't tell yet which sex they are) are all huddled together and the 2 older ones have their eyes open and are making squeaky noises. Elli Jilek
The corner where the chicks are usually situated was quite dry, and mom was VERY protective of them as Pat handed the chicks one by one through to Eric on the other side of the opening to the ledge. They were placed in the box provided for this type of thing, and each one was carefully weighed and measured by Pat and Georgina. Meanwhile dad was frantically swooping at the ledge, and mom was quite verbal and irate at all of us. Trying to fend her off with a broom didn't seem to faze her or the male too much. The 3 chicks, all males, were duly handled with care.
It took about 1/2 hour or more to complete the banding, and despite the ruccus, all chicks were placed in their corner and eventually calmed down, as did mom when Pat and Georgina left the ledge site.
Pat picked up some leftover meal parts to determine their identity.
I was privileged to be able to hold and hand over 2 of the chicks during the measuring/weighing, and for photo ops by Ken. The chicks are so fluffy - very ball-like - and some dark flight feathers are appearing underneath the white fluff. Their eyes are big and dark, and the youngest one (first to be put in the corner after weighing) had its chin on the ground and looked an awful lot like Groucho Marx.
The parents flew around and in front of the ledge site for quite a while after we had all left, and slowly things calmed down. One of the youngsters ventured to the front of the ledge later that afternoon - probably to get some much-needed sunshine and warmth.
Pat Young reports that all Calgary peregrine babies are doing well, and that we have 11 healthy specimens at three nest sites. Edmonton on the other hand has had a very poor year - only 3 (4?) babies have survived there. It seems the nest sites have not been protected sites, and that the chicks have died of exposure.
All in all the morning was very dirty, smelly (guano, especially wet, is powerful!!), but above all exciting and wonderful. To hold an endangered species, and such lovely little things, is a rare opportunity and a great privilege to be part of such an endeavour.[EJ]
I found him on the roof that connects Craigie Hall with the PFB, and he 'walked' over to one of the office windows, where he proceeded to peer inside. No one was home, and so he ventured off again, doing a few back-and-forth walks. He took off and landed somewhere close by on a roof. There is one fledgling on the roof of the University Theatre - he is in the shady part. The third juvenile is not to be seen. Eric Tull reckoned the first flight happening July 23rd - he was spot on. Elli
I finally found the 3rd fledgling quite low down on a large poplar branch. Unfortunately, he decided to choose a branch that was just too high for a step ladder. As I was phoning for a longer ladder, my colleague Molly Taylor came to tell me that the bird came down on his own. One of the campus security guards had already carried him up to the roof, where both parents were swooping down on the intruders. All family members were at that point intact and noisy. Elli
[When I was over Friday about 5 pm, one of the juveniles had to be rescued from the ground and placed on the roof, and library circulation staff told me that one of the young had had to be rescued and put back on the roof earlier in the day. Don't know if it was always the same bird - the one rescued on Friday had a lot of down still showing amongst its feathers. JM]
Was over several times on the weekend, but saw only 2 juveniles each time. However, this evening about 8:40 pm all 3 juveniles were on the roof of Earth Sciences, so all three must be flying well. One of the adults was on the LT roof and the second on the NE face of Social Sciences, where I had seen it in the evening both Friday and Saturday. JM
The first definite sighting of the birds on campus was on April 18. On May 6, there were two eggs in the nest. On June 2 the nest was found to have four eggs, all of which were fertile. On June 17, there were four young in the nest that were estimated to be 5-7 days old. The first young fledged on July 21, the other three on July 23. The young gradually left during the second half of August. The adults remained through much of September, with the male last being sighted on October 2.
The first confirmed sighting in 1996 was made on April 10, when an adult
female Peregrine Falcon was seen. The first observation of two Peregrines was on
April 25. The birds are nesting on the ledge on Craigie Hall where they nested
last year. Four eggs were laid; all were fertile and hatched on June 19-20. The
four young all proved to be males. They all fledged between July 30 and August
1. As of August 29, three young and two adults are roosting on campus and
spending considerable time here during the day. The last sighting of Peregrines
(2 adults) on campus was on September 20.
Two Peregrine Falcons were first seen on the University of Calgary campus at the end of April, 1995. They chose a ledge on Craigie Hall as their nest site, and laid two eggs. The first egg was laid on May 17th and the second egg was laid on May 24. The eggs proved to be infertile.
Two foster young that had been hatched at the captive-breeding facility at Wainwright, Alberta were introduced into the nest on June 17. The first chick left the nest ledge on July 20 - the second on July 22.
The second young Peregrine to leave the nest was found with a badly broken leg on July 29. She was taken to the Calgary Zoo, where surgery was performed to put a pin in the leg. After a long convalescence she was placed in the care of a local falconer, who has been training her to fly and to hunt. He is keeping her over the winter for possible release next spring. The other Peregrines have all left the campus.
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