| |
 |
Bremer Tower female with 2-day-old chicks |
The results of the breeding season are starting to come in and be discovered. When peregrines lay eggs, you cannot always assume that they will hatch, reach banding age, or survive to fledging age. We know which sites the adults have laid eggs, but now we monitor nests, watching for eggs to hatch.
Peregrines incubate their eggs for approximately 33-35 days after they lay their second to last egg. Most of the sites where we can actually count eggs have four eggs in the box or tray, and the City Center in Minneapolis even has five! During incubation, the observation part of my job is fairly relaxed. Just sit back, count to 33 and then hope that you see a change in the behavior of the adults to tell you that the eggs have actually hatched. Some of the pairs of adults on territory are starting to brood their newly hatched chicks. The young chicks need to be protected from the weather (heat, rain, snow, cold) for the first week by the adults, and this behavior is called brooding.
 |
Peregrine chicks only nine days old. |
We estimate that our first hatching occurred the first week of May in Sartell and Minneapolis at the Lock and Dam 1, with many more of the sites hatching this week. At other sites, we will know exactly when the eggs hatch because there is a remote camera on the nest box or tray. Sites like this include the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, the Colonnade building in Golden Valley, Bank of the West in Fargo, ND, and the City Center Tower in Minneapolis. You can watch the City Center site for yourself at thefalconsat33.com or the Bank of the West in Fargo. The camera allows for a very close and exciting view into the lives of the peregrine falcon—count the eggs in the box, watch the eggs hatch, observe the adult peregrine feed their newly hatched chick, or watch the new chick sleep.
The next step in the peregrine project will be determining the date where we will band the young chicks. We try to band the chicks at 18-25 days of age, preferably around 21 days. If they are any younger than 18 days, it becomes difficult to determine their sex and therefore determine which size band to put on their leg. If they are much older than 25 days, they are more active and could jump from the box, tray, or cliff. I have a pretty good idea on hatching and banding date for the majority of the sites, and am trying to finish this work next week when I travel to the North Shore of Lake Superior to get an idea on the successes of the 12 cliff sites we monitor.
I would like to invite anyone who is interested in watching us band the young chicks to come to any of the following sites in May and June. Dates may change though, so check this list often to make sure the banding is still going to happen.
Click here for the 2007 banding schedule
This is an exciting time for the field team and we are hoping you will continue to watch the birds with us.
|