Bird Cams Around the World

2010 POSTS!

Cam link:

Nest location: Université de Montréal’s * Art-deco tower of the Roger-Gaudry Building

Roger (male)
Spirit (female)

Polly (Juvie)-Gray bands
Spirit-color bands
Roger-no bands

Hi everyone,

Thanks for opening a new topic for our falcons, Roger and Spirit. I am the person who installed the nestbox in 2008 and who has been following them since the beginning. Our female, Spirit, is banded black over green 93/E, she was born in 2004 at the Hilliard Road Bridge in Ohio. Her mate Roger is not banded. Last year was the first time they had chicks - one male and one female, named Algo and Polly. Here is the timetable for last year :

March 13 : First copulation observed
~April 1 : Incubation begins
May 10 : Hatching (2/4)
June 5 : banding
June 18 : Algo falls from tower
June 20 : Polly tries to fly
June 23 : the two falcons can fly back to the tower on their own

After last year's success, I installed 2 web cameras in the box, and we hope 2010 will bring us healthy chicks...!

So far I have observed the first copulation on February 26, will everything be early this year? Hope so!! I can't wait!!

Another interesting fact about this year nesting is that one of last year's young - the female Polly - is still present in the territory. Not only is she tolerated by her parents on the tower, but they are not aggressive at all with her when she checks them out in the box - even when they are actively engaged in courtship activities around the scrape...!! She was injured in August last year to her right leg, and has still a handicap. The parents are not feeding her, but my theory is that she might not be as successful as them at catching preys so she hangs around and steals from them once in a while... It will be very interesting to see how this situations develops in the next few weeks...

Eve Belisle
Montreal

Thanks a lot ! Here's a first funny photo, when Spirit was checking out the webcam yesterday:


To answer your question about Polly, I think if she has survived until now she will be just fine on her own. It would help if she could find a mate to take care of her though... I tried to catch her for several weeks last year when I first saw that she was injured, but I gave up. I did not want to use any technique that would disturb Spirit and Roger, and I saw that she seemed in good health despite the handicap. Her leg now seems a little better than it was, and it is clear that she has learned to live with it. At first she was lying down a lot and she was unstable, now she's like any other falcon except that she can't lean on that leg only. From what the experts told me, she has a better chance at having a normal life because she is a female - a male could not be able to reproduce without his two legs to hang on to the female during mating.

Welcome to our forum, Wizzz & thank you for the info on these new webcams and the falcons. We are always saddened when its time for the youngsters to leave the nest, so I am glad to hear that a youngster still visits her parents' nest. It is unfortunate about the reason, though...

Welcome EVE.

I have been following Polly and her injury. Not unusual for the parents to tolerate her.

Welcome Eve, and thanks for installing the box and cams! Its so great having the nest managers here, and we are so glad to have them and their expert observations. There was a falcon a few years ago, in New York or Canada, missing a leg. That falcon did surprising well, and I think had a mate. I would have thought catching prey would have been a huge issue, but it did not appear to be a problem. Its so interesting seeing Polly is staying close to home. I'm anxious to hear how things progress. I haven't heard of that before. I'll have to share your info with the Virginia biologists. I'm sure it would be good learning for them too. Spirit is a cutie!

Can't see alot, but there is someone there!

Great catches, Beth! Yeah, the lighting/color isn't as good in the one cam. I'd be interested in seeing if that one had the brownish coloring of a juvie. Course I don't know at what point their feathers turn gray...

That picture at the top with the single Falcon sure looks like a juvie to me

Hi cutie pie!