May 16th – 2017
Hi Mark, Richard and I checked in on Joe and Virginia on our way back from Pelee. Doesn’t look like a hatch yet. We watched for an hour and she didn’t move. Joe sat nearby on a tree. We’ll check again soon and keep you posted. Cheers,
Lucie
Sunday May 9th – 2017
Hi Mark!
Richard and I are in Beachville. Looks like there are eggs!
We have confirmed by their leg band numbers that it’s still the same resident adult pair Joe and Virginia!!
Lucie
May 1st 2017
Banding day has been set for June 9th at 9:30 AM
Lucie reports:
I was thrilled that Cathy Kerr wanted to accompany me to Beachville so we did a road trip on Saturday, July 2!
My contact from Woodstock had informed me that the juveniles took their first flight just a couple of days earlier!
The weather was super, just the right mix of sun and cloud. It can get hot sitting in the parking lot, so some cloud cover is refreshing. Being a long weekend, it was also pretty quiet. You could hear the humming coming from the hydrator, a sound I’ve come to consider as quite soothing.
When we arrived around 1:30 we found both juveniles chilling out on the hydrator tower where they stayed ALL afternoon.
Just the occasional wing flapping and some vocal activity.
Joe and Virginia were always close by and provided us with some entertainment as they chased after a bald eagle that was passing overhead. A bald eagle .. awesome!! The fact that it was pretty high up didn’t matter and still warranted those warning calls from the parents.
We left around 5:00 to grab some dinner and when we returned about an hour later, the kids were scampering around on the low-rise maintenance building. They stayed on the roof for pretty much the rest of the evening. More wing flapping, dinner served, a little exploring and and then a stroll along the top of the long building.
Finally! We were able to witness a take off and flight! How wonderful! And then they disappeared, landing somewhere out of our sight. We we called it a night around 7:30.
We look forward to going back soon and hopefully witnessing some hunting lessons.
June 16th - 2016
A big thank you to Lucie for being able to get back down to the Beachville nest site this week. Her efforts paid off for some good photos of the family that were captured and observed.
Included are some of her pictures from her Thursday’s visit to Beachville. After looking very closely at Lucie’s photos of the hatchlings, it would appear that there maybe one male and one female, with the older more advanced hatchling on the right as evident of the more advanced juvenile flight feathers poking out through its white down.
Two babies, looking to be 26+ days old, ready to fledge within 2 weeks!
I arrived at 11:30am. I was hoping the rain would stop soon and it did thankfully. I was able to watch the resident adult female Virginia and the kids in the nest and got a pic when they were having a real family vocal moment.
It was pretty much quiet all day. Joe (the resident adult male) was around off and on all day, but away from the nest. When he and Virginia took a flight around the nest, it got the kids’ attention, so I was able to get a few good pictures.
I thought it was funny when a great blue heron flew quite close to the nest box. It was just the babies in it and as I watched through the scope, I saw their eyes following the heron.
Also, the beam from last visit is now gone. It was where the food prep area was.
During the afternoon, around 2:30, a Carmeuse employee came by to ask me a question, and while talking, I missed Virginia flying into the nest with a starling. When I look through my scope, I saw her plucking the bird in front of the kids! They were even trying pull the bird from her and I saw one of the chicks with a feather in its beak.
Around 5:30 I saw Joe come in and land on a nearby post. He remained there until around 7:00 when he and Virginia took off together. That’s when I packed up and departed for home.
Cheers,
Lucie
June 14th - 2016
We have some exciting news to report in that we have finally been able to confirm at least two eggs have hatched in the new CPF nest box atop of the peregrine nesting tower at the Beachville quarry!
Lucie has returned back from England and will down at the Beachville site tomorrow (June 16th) armed with camera in hand so stay tuned……
We look forward to some additional photos as soon as they become available.
May 23rd - 2016
Some additional photos of Joe and Virginia from Lucie that she was able to send to us from the UK where she is currently on vacation.
Have a great holiday Lucie!
It almost looks like the resident male “Joe” is trying to convince his mate “Virginia” that he did this all himself,, (build the new home and put up the tower just for her) 
While I don’t think that she’s buying it,, she has obviously approved and decided to lay her eggs in it.
Hopefully, we will be able to see just how many hatchlings the pair have produced as soon as they get large enough. .
Congratulations are in order for a successful hatch!
Stay tuned……………….
May 23rd - 2016
Hello All
We have some great news to report with a huge thanks to Lucie for all of her efforts!! Lucie was down to the Beachville nest site again over the long weekend and has confirmed a hatch!! While we have no way of knowing how many of the eggs have hatched,, the observation report that Lucie filed over the weekend has confirmed that the Beachville resident pair are tending to a recent hatch! While they are much too small to be seen from our site lines on the ground, food was delivered by Joe, (the resident adult male) to the nest box and to the brooding adult female (Virginia) on several occasions during Lucy’s watch.
Congratulations are in order for everyone’s hard work and incredible stewardship!!!
She was also able to confirm that both residents are the same pair as last year,, with Joe Black 48 over Y and Virginia 76 over AX Good going Lucie!!!
It has been a long road so to speak, with the new nest box and a new tower nesting situation for the Carmeuse Quarries peregrines,, but the story as they say, is history now. Having successfully convinced the resident adult peregrines to utilize the new CPF nesting box atop of the new tower several hundred feet from the original nest site on the lime silos accounts for yet another successful project,, that with the support of the great folks at Carmeuse Lime & Stone quarries just outside of Beachville Ontario, its been a win - win situation for all!
A lot of planning, manpower and resources, including that of allot of “time-in” has once again paid off! The nest box was installed on the top of one of the old conveyer tower supports via crane back in November 2015 by CPF and Carmeuse employees. The nest box was manufactured earlier in October 2015 by the Canadian Peregrine Foundation at the CPF raptor centre in Vaughan and transported down to the Carmeuse quarry on the day of the install.
With funding and other important resources, (additional manpower, a lift bucket and a crane) provided Carmeuse quarries, we braved the cold and heights to install the new nest box atop of the modified tower. After properly preparing the new nest box, it was secured and bolted in place atop of the tower. This with both resident peregrines watching closely from their usual roosting spots on the old silos. We did get several fly-bys by both resident adults as they watched closely throughout the entire install.
Stay tuned for further updates…..
May 23rd - 2016
Hi All,
Richard and I decided to spend holiday Monday at Beachville watching the Carmeuse quarries nest site.
We initially came by on Monday, May 16, and saw the female in the nest the entire time we were there. She did get up and reposition herself a couple of times. There was no other falcon around. We stayed from 4-5 and then 6-7:15. Knowing that a hatch should occur at any time, we decided to come back one week later.
So on the 23rd, we saw signs there was a hatch!
We arrived shortly before 2:00 pm. The action started almost immediately. The female was in the nest and the male flew to a nearby beam carrying food (a starling). The female flew over to him and took off with the food. He then flew to the nest and I was able to ID him as Joe (solid black, 48/Y). Around 2:15, the female came to the nest with the prepared food and it appeared like she started to feed their baby/babies. It looked like she was feeding very small morsels. Joe sat patiently beside her. Too cute! Within 10 minutes, she took off with the leftovers and landed on a nearby post. I was able to ID her as Virginia (black over green, 76/AX). Joe went to sit with the baby/babies.
Joe continued to remain in the nest box until Virginia came back around 3:25. I didn’t see her land but she must have had food. The feeding looked pretty intense so I started to wonder if there was more than one baby? Joe took off and landed on a nearby post and stayed there for quite awhile. At around 4:30, he flew over to the drop off beam and squawked. No idea what was happening here. Then he took off back to his favourite perch.
At around 5:45, Joe flew to the nest. I watched through the scope as they were just looking at each other. Then Joe took off and within two minutes, he came back with prepared food (I guess he had a stash) in his talon and carried it over to Virginia. He took off to his perch and she was feeding again, but she was hidden in the corner and I couldn’t see anything. Also by this time, the sun was coming in over the nest making it harder to see.
We left at 6:00.
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………….
