HATCHING EXPECTED ANY TIME NOW!
Falcon eggs soon to hatch
Telus tower web cam offers global view
Jun 09, 2010 06:00 am
A local Peregrine Falcon will soon be a mom as her three eggs are expected to hatch within a week atop the Telus Radio-Relay tower in Highland Green home. Every routine of a pair of Peregrine Falcons has been monitored by a growing international audience since a web cam was installed in late March on the 332-ft. tower.
Telus staff had been approached by representatives with the Red Deer River Naturalists about installing a web cam on top of the tower so the birds could be monitored and enjoyed by a world-wide audience. Judy Boyd, secretary with the Red Deer River Naturalists, said the falcon had initially laid five eggs but two have since disappeared. She believes there was something wrong with two of them and the mother may have gotten rid of two of them or possibly eaten them.
“I don’t see it as being a predator,” she said, adding that two of the eggs were laid before the recent snowstorm and could have been affected by the cold. It’s also very rare for a Peregrine Falcon to lay five eggs,” she said.
Meanwhile, she said staff are trying to get the web cam in recording mode for the upcoming hatching. It’s been streaming live video but not consistently in recording mode since it was set up, she said. That’s why the mystery of the disappearing eggs will never be conclusively solved.
Since the web cam was set up, Boyd said more and more people have been tuning in and chatting about viewing the Peregrine Falcons. She said chats show at least one person from everyone continent – except for the Antarctica – has been checking in on the falcons, which have been calling the top of the tower home for about a dozen years.