May 13, 2013 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
May 13th - 2013
A huge thank you to Jacquie and the entire USA team, as the Niagara Falls peregrines have not made locating their nest spot this year easy at all!
Jacquie writes: May 13th - 2013
Hi Guys,
I was at the Falls again today and saw tail feathers sticking out from behind that pink board again (photo attached) as soon as I arrived at 12:50. At 1:06 I saw the feathers move as the bird shifted positions. At 1:10 the male flew in and landed in the right side of the window box while the female came out from behind the pink board and flew off. He went behind the board and took over incubation duties. He didn’t have anything in his talons and I didn’t see any sign of him feeding chicks. When I left at 3pm, he was still on the nest and she had not returned yet.
I will get out my notes tomorrow and put together a timeline of observations and maybe we can figure out an incubation start date.
- Jacquie
Posted on May 14, 2013 7:05 pm
May 03, 2013 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
May 3rd - 2013
Despite the efforts of many on both sides of the border, the resident Niagara falls peregrines have both eluded and confused us all, (in addition to the frustration experienced from all as to just where they are actually nesting this season)!
A huge thank you to Jacquie who has been able to identify the actual nest site! While it still remains on the old OPG powerhouse wall on the Canadian side of the Niagara gorge, the peregrines have really been sneaky this year and given us all a run for the money in an effort to locate the nest site. For some unknown reason, the resident grins have decided not to nest in the same spot as in previous years. Although they have been successful in producing offspring over the past few years in this old nesting spot, they have obviously decided to change locations.
Jacquie writes:
Hi folks,
I just wanted to send you an update on the falcons at the Falls. They did not use the nest cavity this year, and for the past couple of weeks we have been trying to figure out where they are nesting. When I was there on April 30 I was pretty sure I saw the tail feathers and wingtips of an incubating falcon poking out from behind a pink board in one of the boarded up windows on the old power building, but I couldn’t be sure. I was there again on May 3 and saw the same thing, but again I wasn’t sure if it was a bird, or shadows, or some debris in the window. I had not seen any adults going into or out of that window, so I was doubting myself. However, today when I was there I saw the tail feathers again poking out from behind the pink board, and then I saw the female (I am assuming it was the female) get up and reposition herself before going back behind the board.
They were sneaky this year! But I finally confirmed my suspicions about that window. She did spend a lot of time there her first year before she chose that other window closer to where you guys installed the nest box. And they used it as a prey cache last year. I have attached photos of the window location so you can see where I am talking about. Now all we have to do is figure out when incubation began. I think the earliest report I have is Tracy Simpson’s observations from April 21, when she thought they were possibly incubating somewhere on the OPG building. But I also have reports of only one adult seen perched on the building a few times during the first week in April. So I am not sure how accurately we can estimate a hatch date. Probably the best we can do is get some watchers there to look for evidence of chick-feeding.
I’ll let you know if I have anything further to report. I hope all is well on your side! Happy falcon season!
- Jacquie Walters
Posted on May 8, 2013 7:42 pm
April 23, 2013 - Niagara Falls
Tracy Simpson Reports:
After visiting the Port Colborne nest site last Saturday April 20th, Bruce and I decided to travel over to the Niagara Gorge to look for Diamond and Onyx, the resident adult pair in the gorge. Vicki and Roger, our amazing watchers south of the border, have been monitoring the gorge from Terrapin Point and have been working hard to determine if the pair are nesting again in the powerhouse where they successfully raised young last year. The mist has been strong and the light challenging to get photo confirmation from the American side of the Niagara and they have been doing a wonderful job. In the series of photos that they have taken, one of the shots potentially showed the image of an adult lying down but the mists occluded the photo enough that it was inconclusive. In another photo, the cavity looked empty. Although we cannot see into the nest cavity from the Canadian side, we hoped that we might catch the pair moving through the territory and therefore give us a clue as to what they are up to.
We headed up the parkway to Table Rock, parked and walked down to the retaining wall directly above the powerhouse. We weren’t there but a few minutes when Diamond popped up onto the edge of the roof. She came straight up from below leading us to believe that she was roosting just out of our sights on the face of the powerhouse. I had been watching over the water and did not see the male and so we decided to wait for a while to see if we were witnessing a changeover indicating that they are nesting here or if she was just lounging on a familiar perch. Diamond didn’t stay long before she took off out over the water and banked around into town. We followed her trajectory as best as we could and finally lost her low behind some trees near the Niagara Casino. We scanned all of the buildings and rooftops for signs of her but she was not in visual range.
Given that it was now after 5pm and this time of day being traditionally the “witching hour” when one of the last hunts of the day takes place, we considered the possibility that this appearance by Diamond could possibly be a changeover. We decided to walk down to the Maid of the Mist and take a look back at the powerhouse for her return. We waited for almost an hour with no sign of her before slowly making our way back to the powerhouse retaining wall. We scanned the cityscape again and found her roosting just below the rooftop on the Hilton hotel. I decided that we were staying until we could determine where she was going to settle in for the night. It wasn’t long before she took off of her perch on the Hilton and made a bee line for the gorge. She whipped through about 20 feet above our heads and was out over the water before we could turn ourselves around! She made a few circles out over the river and then swooped back up to the roof of the powerhouse once more. There she found prey remains that she picked away at but was clearly not satisfied with. She consumed what little was left on the bird and then turned her attention north along the powerhouse wall. In seconds she was off like a shot and didn’t turn out over the water or up over the gorge wall. She just simply disappeared. Three minutes later she was back and this time with fresh dinner for herself. When she was done, she roosted briefly and then made two separate flights that looped out over the water and ended with her landing back on the powerhouse roof. We believed she was signalling Onyx to get his tail feathers out of her nest so she could get back to business. Her third and final flight out over the river started off as a run at a gull she didn’t care for (why she picked that one out of the jillions that were there is beyond me) and ended with her flying north to the end of the face of the powerhouse. There she dropped out of sight, skimmed the wall heading towards us, circled out once over the water and then flew straight at the wall. Gone. One minute. Two minutes. Three… …ee-chup, ee-chupp!!! The unbanded male that Marion and I named Onyx popped straight up from below the roof edge of the powerhouse! He sat and preened for a good 10 minutes before taking off towards the falls and disappearing from our view on the cliff face.
Bruce and I believe that when we arrived at 4:30pm we caught the first changeover that gave Diamond her break from incubating. Between 6:30-7:00pm, she returned to the eggs for the night and Onyx headed off to bed. A heartfelt and huge thank you goes out to Vicki and Roger for putting Bruce and I on the right track and monitoring from Terrapin Point; we couldn’t have done it without you. How many eggs they have is still unknown but it is great to see that they are well on their way.
Posted on April 26, 2013 9:27 am
April 13, 2013 - Niagara Falls
CPF Volunteer Reports:
First we must say a huge thank you to Roger and Vicki for their efforts to update us all on the progress of the Niagara Gorge pair. It would seem that Diamond and Onyx are still very much a presence in the gorge and when we looked at the shots that Vicki was able to get through the mist and fog, it would appear that there is an adult peregrine lying down in the nest cavity. While this can’t be 100% confirmed as of yet, Vicki and Roger have plans to return to Terrapin point for another recon session soon. We have posted the picture with the potential image of an adult incubating and we look forward to hearing more about the progress in Niagara!!
Posted on April 13, 2013 12:04 pm
March 30, 2013 - Niagara Falls
Kathy Reports:
Last night I received a request from our good friends Chad and Chris in Ohio to identify a female with black bands reading 45/X. She has been discovered nesting at the Lakeshore Power Plant in Cleveland, Ohio and already has 1 egg in the nest box.
Quite amazing she chose Ohio as her mother, Diamond, was born in 2009 in Canton, Ohio and has been in residence at the Niagara Falls site since 2010. Lady Millar was one of two female hatchlings banded on July 8, 2011.
Will post most details as soon as they are available as events are still unfolding here. The previous resident female here passed away last year and they haven’t yet reconfirmed the resident male.
Posted on March 30, 2013 6:38 am
June 14, 2012 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 14th - 2012
So far, everything looks okay at the Niagara Gorge nest site which is very close to where Nik Wallenda intends to perform Friday night. Wednesday, Terrapin Pt was overrun with Walle-crews, working on riggings for the cable which was installed Tues night. Lighting being installed, cables laid on the ground, interesting conversations of Walle-crew guys overheard everywhere. There are at least five cables across the gorge. The one Walle will walk on weighs seven tons! Some of the other cables I think will carry the cameras.
Please see next email with more pix of the set-up and of a feeding
Vicki & Roger
Posted on June 27, 2012 4:19 am
June 07, 2012 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 7th - 2012 - Banding day photos
Late postings with photos soem great photos from the other side!
We could see pretty well from Terrapin Point this morning and everything looked to go very smoothly! All shots except for one were taken by Roger. This is the first six, remainder in packet 2
Posted on June 27, 2012 4:14 am
June 07, 2012 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Banding Day - June 7th - 2012
A big thank from our good friends Vicki and Roger who was able to snap some photos of the banding event from the USA side . Some great shots from a different view, a view that we never get to see!
Thanks MUCH folks!!
We’ve posted the photos a little larger than normal, so they might take longer to download when viewing. You can see both resident adult peregrines involved in an intense attack on the rock climbers during the extraction. As earlier mentionaed by our rock climbing crew, the resident adults have become far more aggressive this year.
Posted on June 9, 2012 8:55 am
June 07, 2012 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 7th - 2012
Banding Day success. In record time and without incident, four young hatchlings were weighed, sexed, banded, deemed healthy and returned to their parents. Both resident adult parents were hand to supervise the event and it was quite obvious that they were far more aggressive than last years banding. A big thank you to our climbers: John Millar and his assistant Jurgen Bilo for all of their assistance in the extraction of the hatchlings (and their safe return), and the Niagara Parks commission for their support.
A huge thank you to Anne Yagi of the OMNR for her support in banding the young hatchlings and to both Carol and Dana for their support.
The hatchlings Particulars:
1. - 865 grams, female - 23 days old - banded Black 46 over X - Named Rainbow - with Blue tape
2. - 876 grams, female - 22 days old - banded black 47 over X - Named Double Diamond - with Yellow tape
3. - 766 grams, male - 22 days old, banded Black 89 over Y, - Named Black Jack, with Green Tape
4. - 887 grams, female, 22 days old, banded Black X over 90, - Named Seven, with Red tape
Many more photos to come,
Stay tuned……
Posted on June 8, 2012 12:00 am
June 06, 2012 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
June 6th - 2012
Two days til banding! It definitely appears that four growing eyasses are growing quickly!!
Vicki Kadow and Roger Johnson
Posted on June 6, 2012 2:38 am
