!!! Beachville nesting,, in the new nest box and nest tower!! Incubation is underway!!!
April 15, 2016 - International, National and Local News
Mark Nash Reports:
Friday, May 6, 2016 1:37 AM
Hello All
Yes, we have been monitoring the Beachville nest site as closely as we can, given the distances and travel times involved. Lucie and friends have been monitoring the Beachville grins since we installed the nest box. The peregrines remained on territory throughout the winter months and were still being observed on the old silos in and around of the old nest site up until the demo started.
They actually used the new nest box and nest box tower as an observation spot to watch the silos being demolished.
By April 6th – (see photos of the grins on the nest box tower), both resident adults were in and out of the nest box on a regular basis. Very shortly after, by April 12th, we started to observed the pair involved in courtship behaviours and copulation between the two. Being peregrine breeding season and with hormones running high with all peregrines in our region, this was
By April 15th, we started to see only a single peregrine at any one given time – (but seeing both the male and female at various times throughout several days of observing),, although never at the same time,, which is a strong indication that they were down on egg(s) involved in full time incubation. It was NOT a foregone conclusion nor actually confirmed at this time that they were actually using the nest box, but given the pairs activity in and around of the new nest box, we highly suspect that they are utilizing it.. Remembering that it is very difficult to actually see into the nest box especially given the distances and angles involved.
By the end of April, we had been able to confirm that the pair were actually utilizing the nest box, obviously involved in full time incubation of an undisclosed amount of eggs.
Lucie was able to get back down to do some additional observations, this time with some extreme magnification and was able to snap the attached photo of the female laying down inside the nest box.
Although the timeframes and observations are “somewhat lose”, we believe that if in fact the egg(s) are in fact fertile and have been properly incubated, that a hatch is only three weeks away..
That’s what I have so far, stay tuned………….
