Selkirk Peregrines - 2012 / Ty & Paris

[The Peregrine Chick]

I think perhaps that Selkirk, and probably the Brandon Tower site, are going to be nestsites that you can see the birds when they are nesting but they will be harder to find once the chicks start flying.  For those not sure what I mean, we saw the Radisson chicks for weeks after they fledged, still see the Brandon chicks semi-regularly, but the Selkirk chicks/birds have been not visible at the nestsite since about the second week after fledging.  With the spread out nature of the perches in Selkirk/at the Brandon Tower site, this may mean once the kids have a handle on flying the parents take them off to spots closer to food or keep moving them about since they aren't dependent on the nest anymore.

Just my impression ...

[photosbydennis]

Made a stop in Selkirk today and checked the prime location then on to other locations that I thought might attract them...no luck.

[photosbydennis]

Perhaps a good day for chasing birds...I wouldn't be doing much flying in a monsoon if I was a bird !
Not a great day for photographing, between trying to keep the equipment dry, dull grey sky and finding a location that was out of the wind that would work for shooting...it worked out.
A number of new photos have been added.

http://www.pbase.com/photosbydennis/selkirk

[bcbird]

It will be great to see Dennis' pictures of Daer contrasted with his brother.  Wow... handsomest of Trey's kids, and mated to a glamorous Paris... their youngsters could turn out to be stunners!

[des]

Thanks so much for all the updates - great to open the forum site and see so much.  And thanks to all who do so much helping with and reporting to us about the peregrines...and with photos, too.

[The Peregrine Chick]

And to answer the question most of you have ... we are currently in the talks to install a nestbox at this location, so if y'all can wait until we have the details worked out and everyone is comfortable with the idea of having peregrines nesting close by, that would be great. 

Now, for all you you saying "awww", the Selkirk chicks are all up and flying here and at two weeks post fledging (Brother went out we know by July 23rd, Daer went on July 28th) they aren't hanging out most of the time at the nestsite anymore.  Remember by this point the Radisson chicks weren't coming back to the box/ledge regularly and we turned the cams off because the Brandon chicks were rarely on-camera at this age.  At least half of all visits to the Selkirk nestsite have not resulted in any sightings.  We got lucky today because the birds were tucked up waiting out the rain and we were able to track them down over a period of a couple of hours.  Even then, we only found them for short periods before they were off and moving again, so maybe we were more than lucky today and with better weather for the next week (sunny, mid-20s C and lighter winds) we may very well not get another chance like today's this year ...

[The Peregrine Chick]

Convinced Dennis to take a detour between the West Winnipeg and HSC nestsites so we could check on Daer.  Even though I knew there was no reason for Paris or Ty to leave the Selkirk nestsite, I still wanted to check that Daer had been reunited with his parents and sibling - they weren't around when I released Daer.

It was pouring when we arrived but we could still see a bird sitting at the nestsite and we were pretty sure it was Paris so we checked out the tower and then started looking around for Ty and the kids.  Because it was raining we had to keep cameras and field glasses from getting wet even if it meant we got soaked but we did find Ty a couple of blocks away having a meal and as wet as we were.  He took off so we had another look at the nestsite then decided to go a little further afield so we started driving around looking for perching spots on trees, rooftops, signs and poles.  And we were rewarded!!  Dennis spotted both the boys (and yes, Daer's sibling looks to be a brother by his size) sitting about 100 feet away from each other in the rain.  Daer was lower so we were able to see his band but his brother was higher and with the flat light not a great day to get a good look at him, but Dennis has some nice photos of him from an earlier visit so it will be interesting to see how the two boys differ in appearance.

It was still raining on cameras, field glasses and us, we took a break for a quick lunch and by the time we were done, Dennis had determined that we were down to 13 drops of rain in the puddle by the car per minute which meant the rain was pretty much over.  Ever optimistic is our Dennis, but in this case, he was correct and the rain was pretty much done.  The wind was still blowing more than a little bit but since the rain had stopped, the kids had decided that they wanted food so they came bombing back to the nestsite demanding food.  The boys ended up following Ty as he was flying about - brother more than Daer though, not surprising since brother has been flying for almost a week longer. 

Ty is moulting at the moment, so he's easier to identify on the wing, Paris is easier to identify in sunlight because she's brown and the boys are easy because they aren't very big.  Brother might be about Ty's size but Daer is smaller.  And it may take a few more of Dennis' photos to confrim but I think Ty may be the best looking of Trey's kids ...

[Kinderchick]

Lord "Daer" - I love the name and I also enjoyed reading the thinking behind the name, with all of it's details! 

[moka]

How exciting, especially that it's one of our home grown boys!  Wow... at this rate, we are going to need to clone you TPC.  However are you going to keep up with so many sites?  

Clone, smone, I will love every second of next spring if everyone comes back.  Even more so if we actually have new tenants at the new nestboxes we'd like to get in place this fall.  No better way to spend a cold blowy March morning than trying to hunker down out of the wind at the back of Dennis' truck trying to read a band number on a bird that "just doesn't look like <insert name of a Manitoba peregrine>".  I know that sounds like I'm kidding, but I'm not.  Fledging is nerve-wracking but the rest is mostly just hoping you have one more hour in the day to get this last task done.  

As for how to keep up?  With the help of Dennis (and his truck), Eye-Spy (and his cameras), Dr Bob, the Brandon Gang, the CBC Falcon Cams, the Forum and Phanatics, the fledgewatchers and calls from the public - like Lila P who emailed me about Ty and Paris just in time for us to catch them at the nest!

Now all we have to do is hope that everyone stays safe over the winter and finds their way back up here!

We all know that you love it, but still, your dedication has inspired us all to follow these amazing  birds.
 

[The Peregrine Chick]

I see from Dennis' latest pictures of Selkirk chick, Daer or the other(?) that the cure little mohawk is still in vogue.

The "other" I think ... but maybe not ... I think Dennis' photos are from the same day that Daer when down ... I'll have to take a closer look ...

[bcbird]

I see from Dennis' latest pictures of Selkirk chick, Daer or the other(?) that the cute little mohawk is still in vogue.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Tracy I love that you give the chicks such interesting names.
I always look forward to reading the history behind their names.
So why did you give Paris her name?

Its a bit of a play on information related to the person who first reported the pair.  And no, the person's name isn't "Paris", I'm a bit superstitious about naming birds after living people, we haven't had good luck with birds named that way.  And since they chose a communications tower which none of our others have, Paris also brought to mind the Eiffel Tower which is not only a tower, but is the tallest structure in France  because of the communications antennae on the top (the Millau Viaduct is taller than just the tower). 

[Doreen]

The chick is male (as you have guessed  and small for a male but given that Ty isn't big and nor does it look like Paris is either, not really surprising.  Very aggressive, didn't like Lisa and most certainly didn't like me during the banding.  Was happy enough to sit freely on my hand during his release so he's an interesting little terror.  We've named him Daer.  Lord Daer is the title given to the heirs of the Lords of Selkirk, so as a son of Selkirk it seemed appropriate to give him this name - particularly in the year of the 200th anniversary of the Selkirk Settlement and (hopefully) the first year of peregrine settlement in Selkirk.

Tracy I love that you give the chicks such interesting names.
I always look forward to reading the history behind their names.
So why did you give Paris her name?

[transplanted maple]

TPC, besides your knowledge of this birds ... ...history lessons too.

Good luck to the watchers..

[GCG]

Thank you so much TPC, for this update on the Selkirk chick, Daer. I look forward to the photos of this little "Dear"?