Just got confirmation ...
Chick Names The Brandon chicks hatched on June 5th which is the date of the Transit of Venus (
http://www.transitofvenus.org/,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus). Because Venus has a retrograde orbit it is viewed twice in six years then not again for 100+ years - the next transit will be in 2117 - hopefully by that date, the peregrines won't need our assistance anymore!
Female (red) -
Maya - the Maya were amazing astronomers and Venus was very important to them and they understood the planet's full cycle - the Venus cycle was especially important because the Maya believed it was associated with war and used it to divine appropriate times for coronations and war - Maya rulers planned for wars to begin when Venus rose.
Male (green) -
Hunter - Maureen Hunter (
http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Hunter%2C%20Maureen) - one of the transit expeditions was lead by Guillaume Le Gentil - he spent 8 years travelling in an attempt to observe either of the 1761/1769 transits but failing - his unsuccessful journey led to him losing his wife and possessions being declared dead. Winnipeg playwright Maureen Hunter based her play "Transit of Venus" (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transit_of_Venus_(play)) on his life. Play premiered at MTC in 1992 (1992 was also the last year we released captive-bred chicks in Brandon - 1993 was the first successful nest)
Male (white) -
Sol - the Latin name for the star, Sol, is widely known but is not common in general English language use - the Transit of Venus is an astronomical event, the voyage of a planet (Venus) across the face of the a star (Sol)
