Getting ready for flight!
May 31, 2016 - Kitchener - CTV-Bell Media Tower
Lisa Reh Reports:
The chicks have changed very quickly since last week’s banding. They are busy plucking at their feathers coming in and are changing right before our eyes! They have lost almost half of their baby fluff and are blending into the stones in the nest box so that it is sometimes difficult to see where they all are. An entire gull has been left in the centre of the nest box that the chicks have not been eating. It is easy to mistake it for a chick. They sometimes nestle into it when they are napping. They actively peck at scraps leftover from their other meals but they haven’t quite figured out how to prepare an entire gull for eating.
Hope seems to have changed the most and has much darker feathers than the others. She has pecked off her yellow identifier tape which is on the floor in the nest box. The others are quickly catching up and are looking less like fluffy, white chicks and more like adult peregrines as they flap and stretch their wings, bob their heads up and down, and move around the nest box. All of the chicks have been out on the ledge and are getting ready for their first flights.
June 7th will be the start of the fledge watch this year and we are planning a training a session that day. More details to follow.
