I should have said earlier that until July 24th, had no idea this nest existed - Lila P, a fan of the falcon cams back to Ty's day (what a conincidence!) emailed me about falcons near her home. I couldn't get out right away but a friend of mine who lives in Selkirk (Chris B) said he would take his camera and take a look. He called to say they were peregrines (they are his pictures I posted) so I scuttled out very early the next day to check them out - and lo and behold, three birds waiting out the rain. When the rain ended, I hung out for a bit longer, in part to dry out before driving home, in part in hope that the birds would preen and stretch after sitting for so long getting wet. And they did. First the bird lower down stretched but all I could see was the silver band I'd been watching. Then he moved his other foot back and I could read his band with the spotting scope. He stayed like that for a couple of minutes so I was able to read it a few times and write it on the back of my hand for safekeeping. The female was up higher and the angle and light weren't good but I thought, why not see if I could at least get a glimpse since I had one band. She just sat and preened and I thought, nope, not going to work. Seemed like forever, actually it was about 10, maybe 15 minutes when she decided to stand up and stretch a bit, not a full stretch, wings and tail and feet, which was good because I'd never had been able to see past the support structure she was sitting on - instead just a little foot stretch and I could see both feet clear as day - huge feet (so confirmed it was the female - she's not that big a bird) and not a band in sight on either foot.
As for their choice of nestsite - nope, don't suspect it has anything to do with Ty's nestledge upbringing in this case. The site is at one of the higher structures around town, none of which have anything the birds can nest on - sort of the same situation at the Brandon Tower, no place on the tower to nest normally, but with a crow's nest, suddenly there is at least a surface of sorts. Nothing about this site is reminiscent of the nestledge, so I think it was a case of best options. We are going to talk to the structure's owners about the potential for installing a nestbox so long as it won't be a hazard or interfere with their operations at the site. I think with a box, this site could be a safer site if birds want to use it in the future. Without the box, I'm not sure how safe this crows' nest (which is now at least 3 years old according to my information) will just become more unstable and unsafe and I would hate to take a chance with these birds if they came back next year. So I suspect the nest will come down whether or not a box goes up. Fortunately we are working on other boxes here in Winnipeg which might be an alternative for Ty and Paris if they return. Would love to have a pair in Selkirk though - near the river, near lots of wetlands (Netley-Libau and Oak Hammock), has busy streets but not terrifyingly so.
