The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Hamilton

Daily Updates - April, 1998

Sunday, April 5
Nadine Litwin reports: I went over to Hamilton this afternoon to watch the peregrines from the street and on the monitor. They're incubating. Last Sunday they were *not* incubating, so it appears she laid her eggs this last week. The female was in the nest at 11:30-ish when I arrived; still there when I left at 12:30; in the nest when I arrived back at 1:00-ish. There was a changing of the guard at about 1:50. I thought there was another changeover around 3:30, but I think it was just the male getting up and having a stretch because when I left at 4:00 the female was still over on the Stelco Tower where I last saw her. I *thought* it still looked like the male on the monitor, but 'til I'm used to them on the screen, I wasn't 100% sure.
-- They're using the east end of the ledge, the one the camera doesn't see into. Great. We can always count on wildlife to cooperate! Well, if I can mobilize some observers in the Standard Life building, it'll be ok. Part of the incubating adult is in view, so I suspect once the chicks hatch we'll see them ok.

Monday, April 6
Bruce Massey reports: Arrived in Hamilton around 8:15am; observed the male flying on and off the Stelco Tower several times.
-- By 8:55am, I was able to observed the monitor for a few hours. The female is definitely incubating eggs -- she exhibited the various characteristics that we have observed over the past two years. She has set up her nest in a position that is out of view of the camera. The nest ledge is about 12 inches deep so the camera will only show her head and part of her body while she incubates the eggs. The good news is, once the chicks hatch, the ledge is deep enough that there is no danger of the young chicks falling off the ledge.
-- At 4:00pm, the male was on the nest. Because is is somewhat smaller, he can hardly be seen. Around 5:30, the male left the nest for about a minute, and again for about 30 seconds shortly afterward. This was the longest time the adults were off the eggs since noon.
-- At 6:10pm, I observed the male doing a stoop over Copp's Coliseum; ten minutes later he stooped another pigeon, diving between the Standard Life building and the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel. He missed the pigeon and did a vertical loop between the buildings and pursued the pigeon again out of sight.
-- Around 7:30pm, I had a special treat of observing five Great Blue Herons fly by me in formation, coming in over the escarpment.

Wednesday, April 8
Kenn Chapman reports: Don Gleig reports that around 4:00-4:30 pm, he saw an adult peregrine fly to the nest ledge and perched right on top of the camera, where it remained for some time, having a good look over the eyrie. It thereby unceremoniously proved a point: the peregrines are not intimidated by the presence of the video cameras.

Wednesday, April 22
Kenn Chapman reports: We spent a couple of hours observation an adult on the eggs via the tv monitor that has been set up temporarily in the Falcon Watch Centre. Because the eggs are located right in the corner nearest the camera, they can't be seen. In fact, it's impossible to determine which adult is sitting on them. About all that can be seen are the tips of the wings most of the time. There was a changing of adults about 9:30 am. Of course, in approximately 3 more weeks, all that will change when the eggs start to hatch and we get nestlings hobbling/running/hopping all over the nest ledge.

Thursday, April 23
Nadine Litwin reports: At 10:30 this morning I saw the adult female perched on a southwest corner of the Stelco Tower, and assumed from this that the male was incubating. Within minutes of my observation the male came roaring out of the nest site calling his alarm, circled around City Hall and headed southeast towards the escarpment. The female glided over to the nest and assumed incubation duties within seconds of the male's abrupt departure.
-- At first I couldn't see what he was after, then spotted a red-tailed hawk in the distance. The male peregrine rocketted upwards, then down, upwards, then down, apparently driving the red-tailed hawk from behind. How could he have known the red-tailed was there???? The nest scrape is *below* the nest ledge.
-- I lost sight of the two birds, so began scanning the rooftops nearby, anticipating the male's return. Like magic, and so typically peregrine, he reappeared on the corner of the Ellen Fairclough building closest to the nest site. (I never seem to see them actually return; they just re-appear!).
-- Then he glided back to the nest site, the female jumped out, he jumped in and carried on incubating.
-- At 3:10 this afternoon the female was incubating at the one end of the nest site, and the male was at the other end of the nest site. He hopped right up to the female, then went through the motions of settling in do some incubating, then looked at her and waited. She didn't budge. Eventually he hopped back to the far end of the nest site, then left. I didn't know that they sometimes shared the nest space like this.

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