!!! Niagara Falls - 2 hatchlings observed!
May 30, 2016 - Niagara Falls
CPF Volunteer Reports:
May 17th - 2016
A huge thank you to Jacquie from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation - (NYDEC) for sending in some of her observations and photos clearly showing that the Niagara Falls peregrines have had a hatch!! Great shots indeed given that Jacquie has been shooting from the USA side with some incredible distances involved!! Great shots Jacquie!!!!
Sadly, as you know, the Niagara Falls Park Commission will no longer allow us to access the site to band the hatchlings, sighting unsafe roof conditions??????
I guess only a huge bucket of money and a dare-devil act has the power 
Jacquie writes:
Hi All,
I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on the Niagara Falls nest site. The top of Terrapin Point on the US side had been closed off for construction, but I finally got a chance to access it when they opened it back up recently. I was there on May 17, and spotted both adults at the box. The female was sitting on the nest and the male was perched on a pipe next to the nest. She flew off, revealing two recent hatches underneath her. It’s pretty far away to age with complete accuracy, but it looked like two 2-3 day old chicks and at least one (possibly 2) eggs. The female came back in with a prey item and fed the two little ones. I was able to see that she is banded, and presumably still “Diamond”, but I could not get a look at the male’s legs to see if he was banded or not. I know last year “Duncan” showed up, (replacing the non-banded Onyx?), and he had been our resident male at the South Grand Island Bridge nest site. I just banded the South GI Bridge nest and both the adults were non-banded, so maybe Duncan is still the male at Niagara Falls.
Hopefully, someone with a really good lens can get a look at him at some point.
I attached a couple photos for you. They were digiscoped, so not excellent quality.
Hope your Peregrine season is going well.
Jacquie
