Rochester nestbox and Quest

As mentioned before the nestbox from Mariah and Kaver of Rochester has been removed from the Kodakbuilding. It was relocated on the Powers Building in Rochester back in October. Now 3 cams have been installed at the nestbox, so if Mariah decides to lay her eggs in 2009 in this nestbox we all will be able to watch it !





Watch this awesome photoshoot of Carol:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=171aim5l.46pyc70h&x=0&y=-xo1zqk&localeid=en_US

And read all about it on Imprints:

http://rfalconcam.com/imprints/


Quest in the meantime has been staying away from Monomoy, choosing instead to go into Chatham Port. In fact, the three data points in the Chatham area place her very close to the Middle School where she spent a few days back in September. Her night time destination continues to be Nickerson State Park.

Alcoa Anglesea: 2008 Season Video

You can also download the video from my website:

http://www.falcoperegrinus.nl/films/Alcoa_2008_end.wmv

Alcoa Anglesea: bonding behaviour

After the youngsters have left the nestsite we always see the adults, especially the male come back to the scrape. He is spending many hours over there standing in the entrance, perching. He will eventually go inside and start scraping bowles.

Many people have asked me, is there gonna be a new clutch. No way! Starting a clutch has everything to do with androgens, and the production of these is being influencend by the increasing amount of daylight hours in the spring. Now that summer is blooming, the daylight hours are not increasing anymore. The androgenlevels are dropping.





This behaviour of the male is all about bonding to the site. And to his partner. After the juvies have left the nestsite is his again. This is the site he picked for his female, it is his choice, his estate in a way and he is taking it back. He leaves his footprint. He is marking it again with bowles.





The female will enter as well and they will display in courtship behaviour: head-bow-low, eechupping. This is bonding behaviour, a conformation to eachother of the bond they have. Like a renewal of the vows in a way. It may even envolve copulations when the juvi's are still around.

So no second clutches but a very special bonding behaviour: we belong together. We have raised and fledged yet another healthy couple of juveniles. And we will do that together the next time at this nestsite.





Although copulations are only with the purpose of reproduction in the avian world, here it has a second function. The one of bonding, of confirming the pairbond. We see copulations as well during territorial disputes, With the same function: I belong to you, you belong to me. You'll make me strong I will fight for you.
And that makes these exeptional beings even more special.

Alcoa Anglesea: they have fledged!

They have left! All three juveniles have finally left the nestbox. Very early this morning, even before 6 the one juv that had spent the night in the nestbox flew off. Probably to join his brothers who were calling him to join them in the air. To play talon tag and chase eachother. For the 3 juvs the fun is really starting now. They can do at last what they were born for: to fly. To get stronger, to built up there flightmuscles. To learn how to fly, how to slip the bonds of the earth. How to chase the winds, how to climb the clouds.

In the upcoming weeks they will learn all the skills they need to know to be able to manage on their own. It are wonderful weeks of play, of talontag, chasing eachother, tumbling and turning, to tease pasing birds, to scare the hell out of small preybirds. It is exciting to watch them, and formost to listen to heir extatic laughter when they are having fun. The parents will always be near, and protect and guide them. They will be fed by them for many more weeks. They are stil dependant on them. And have to learn a lot.

For our 3 juvs, life has only just begun. The time in the nestbox is just a matter of growing until they can finally stretch their wings.

Of course I will keep on autocapturing the cam images, so if one lands on the nestledge I will have him! And I will tell you more about their weeks of training ahead.

Lynn of Rochester

Remember those 4 beautiful ladies of Rochester 2007. Like every year the Rochester youngsters have that extra bit of charme. In 2007 there were 4 female juvs: Linn, Grace, Sacajawae and Ananta.

At december 31, 2007 members from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation were able to positive indentifie a juvenile peregrine falcon in Ontario, Cananda.





This is what Mark Nash said:

Hello All,
We have finally been able to get a positive identification on one of the two Pefa’s that have been calling this neck of the woods home for the past months. On Dec. 31st/2007, one of the CPF volunteers - Bruce Massey’s efforts paid off, and he was able to positively confirm the band number of the Pefa now calling the Bell building at Pharmacy and Eglinton her turf. This is the same building that we used for this past summers hack of four orphaned peregrine chicks that came to us from Quebec.

It is confirmed that we have a juvenile female - 91 over V - holding (and protecting) this territory, and its Linn from Rochester 2007!! She still [has] her red tape over the Silver USFW band.

Linn has been exhibiting very territorial behavior – (as she has been observed defending the Bell building on three different occasions over the past two weeks) while chasing off the local red-tails as they fly over and around of the Bell building.

She can be seen regularly roosting on the Bell building, - next to the hack box, and seems to be calling the building her own – (at least for the time being). She is no longer is being observed on the Water storage tank at Warden and Eglinton, as we pass both these places daily as we go into the CPF head office.

Sadly, we have not seen the adult male that was hanging around with her when she was roosting on the Water storage tank.

Sincerely,

Mark Nash

Director

The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Linn disappeared some time later. But she is back! She molted into a beautiful adult Peregrine falcon. And she has a mate! Such wonderful news!

Mark Nash:

Over the past four plus weeks, we have been getting regular sightings of a pair of peregrines that have been hanging around the Bell hack site at Pharmacy & Eglinton. Both birds (a male and female) have been observed coming in and out of the hack box, as well as roosting, sleeping and feeding regularly on various elevations on the Bell building. This morning we were able to confirm Bruce Massey’s observation of the female’s band number that he [observed] this past weekend (November 8th & 9th 2008) - Black 91 over Green V.
She has been identified as Linn from Rochester – produced at the Kodak nest site in 2007!!
Her male friend also [wears] a Black over Green colour marker band (but we have nohttp://rfalconcam.com/imprints/t been able to get his numbers yet). BUT his USFWS band appears to be a purple/mauve colour. While it may be a coloured tape, it does not appear to be case. We will continue to monitor the site in the hopes that we might get an ID on this guy.

This really is exciting news. It so great when eyases we all saw hatch and grow into juveniles show up as adults a year later. And become parents in their third spring. Like Rhea Mae from Rochester 2006 become a mom in 2008.

We do hope Linn and her mate will continue to stay together and we can watch them go into courtship next spring!

Pics are courtesy by the CPF

http://rfalconcam.com/imprints/

I just want to remind you of this smashing and moving video by Lou Capuano of the Rochester 2007 season. Just sit back and let the music and the images take you back..... (And Linn is the one with the red legband.)

Quests travels

It looks like Quest has established a regular cycle of activity for herself. All of the November data thus far places her near Monomoy Island during the day, and at Nickerson State Park in the evening and at night. It seems the pineland in the park is providing a sheltered spot where she can rest. And of course, she’s likely taking advantage of the bird buffet at Monomoy during the day.


It’s shaping up to be a good life for Quest. She doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to leave the Cape, so this might be the pattern we can expect from her throughout the winter. Quest might have other plans though, so keep checking back every few days to catch up on her latest movements!

http://rfalconcam.com/imprints/

Alcoa Anglesea

All these black spots are flies!















Just one left to sleep alone




It seems like things are coming to end for us watchers. Only 2 juvs spent the night in de box, the third one has a nice place outside. In the early morning, one of th etwo jumped up the roof and was gone as well. One stayed behind, but left as wel after a while.

When the box was empty and I clicked the images real fast I noticed the enormous amount of big black flies in the box. It seemed as if the the ground was alive, it moved! I saw flies sticking to the walls, leaving,it must be one big buzzz. One can only notice when watching all the images in a movie.

Anyway in the evening only one returned to spent the night. I think our 2 boys have started their life and are doing what they are born for: fly!

Alcoa Anglesea: what a day!

What a wonderful day this has been. The 3 juvs were very active and were flying around and playing. They flew up the roof of the box, and off angain, on again, all three of them, and out of view. Reappearing on the other side. They were having a lot of fun and so did we watching them!

It is very obvious now that little Stan fell out of the box by accident more than a week ago. After he has been back he has not left again. He is now showing totally normal behaviour, branching with his brothers. He is a little survivor this one, struggling himself back alive and kicking.

The 3 brothers seem ready to leave, all grown. The primaries are fully grown, that is very well visible on the pics. The tailfeathers need a few cm, but they can fly in spite of that. Won't be long now.

Bandcodes:Midnight: Z/V
Rocket: W/A
Stan: Z/Z