Despite the pandemic, we have been keeping track of Jolicoeur’s daughter Jennifer who returned to the province this spring and who is nesting with an unbanded male at Manitoba Hydro’s Selkirk Generating Station.
Today we were able to confirm that Jennifer and her mate have three chicks (all about banding age). It’s a great location by the river and last fall we installed a nestbox for the peregrines on the roof of the station, not far from the smokestack. The box weathered the winter beautifully, but it didn’t quite have enough appeal for Jennifer so they they nested instead in a substantial raven’s nest on the lower catwalk of the station’s smokestack. Granted a lovely location but one that requires extra organizing, in advance, for things like banding chicks, and in this year of the pandemic we just couldn’t safely organize access at such short notice.
No matter, not only did we get a good look, and wonderful photos, of the chicks today but Manitoba Hydro joined us with to take video of the peregrines on-site. Filming moving peregrines is something we don’t do, its a specialized skill so it was great to have an expert joining us!
Thank you to Manitoba Hydro for permission to include their video in this post