The Project > Ask the Peregrine Chick
Ask the Peregrine Chick - How it Works
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: RCF on July 03, 2013, 19:35 ---That will be good to see a banding video for this year. I seem to recall that there was supposedly one for last year but it was never posted on the forum. Will that one be available to watch also? :-X
--- End quote ---
I hope so! We have tape from both the 2012 McKenzie Seeds and Radisson bandings but CBC couldn't convert them for whatever reason so I did look for someone last year but didn't have much luck. Depending on the equipment we will be using this year, it might be on tape in which case I will continue with my hunt or it might be in digital format which could make it much quicker/easier to post.
RCF:
--- Quote ---We will be banding the 3 McKenzie Seeds chicks on Friday, July 5th - time to be confirmed.
Eye-Spy usually films our bandings to stream live but he will not be able to join us this year.
Because we don't want to risk screwing up the streaming from the window cam,
we will likely not be streaming live rather we will have a video available
as soon as we can get the recording converted.
Will confirm the banding time shortly.
--- End quote ---
That will be good to see a banding video for this year. I seem to recall that there was supposedly one for last year but it was never posted on the forum. Will that one be available to watch also? :-X
Dagny:
Thank you, TFC, you did answer my questions.
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: Dagny on July 03, 2013, 13:07 ---This is my first season watching the falcon cams. I've seen the larger Radisson chick trying to get up onto the ledge. My questions are: does a chick ever fall off the ledge? If it does, can a parent retrieve it and put it back or is it lost? ???
--- End quote ---
Our peregrines (Falco peregrinus anatum) have evolved to nest on cliff ledges, most of which are much smaller and narrower than the ledge they are currently occupying. As a result, the chicks are hard-wired not to fall. So to answer your question, no chicks don't, as a rule, fall from the nest boxes or nest ledges prior to fledging (taking their first flights). The longer they stay on the ledge, the more time they have to strengthen their wing muscles so that when they do take that first step off the building (either on purpose or by accident) then better their chance of surviving the first 24 hours after fledging and then the first 10 days of fledging.
The only time we have ever had a chick "fall" before fledging (first flight) age, was when one had a cerebral accident (like a stroke) and parts of its brain started to die. When the necrosis reached the chick's balance centre in the brain, the chick literally lost it's ability to keep itself upright (standing or sitting) and it's confusion, it got too close to the edge of the box and it toppled over the edge and fell to it's death. Sounds terrible but actually given what was happening its brain, it was probably a more human way to die than say waiting until the necrosis had reached the breathing centre at which point the chick would have lost the ability to breathe which would I figure would have been a much less humane way to die.
To answer the second part, no, at this age there is not much an adult can do to help the chick - as you can see on the webcams, the chicks are the size of their fathers and the female chicks are close to their mother's size already.
The closer the chicks get to fledging age, the safer they will be - in part because they will be larger and stronger, in part because they will be more comfortable sitting on the edge of the ledge and on the drain cover which will (hopefully) help them to be wiser and they will fledge when they are ready not because they got too excited and fledged earlier than they could have/should have. Not much we humans can do about it other than to keep our fingers crossed.
Hope that answers your questions Dagny :)
Dagny:
This is my first season watching the falcon cams. I've seen the larger Radisson chick trying to get up onto the ledge. My questions are: does a chick ever fall off the ledge? If it does, can a parent retrieve it and put it back or is it lost? ???
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version