Watching the Radisson webcam on shaw channel 9 every day for 2 hours since the chicks were tiny (3 hours on Saturday and Sunday). What a beautiful experience! Sometimes it was hard to watch Peewee aka (Lost) being shoved out of the feeding line. Nature has its way, survival of the fittest.
Now Peewee looks weak and seems to have having difficulty flying like his sisters. He's alone most of the time, at least from the perspective of the shaw webcam. Any one who knows more, please post it. Thanks.
I guess my motherly instincts popped out again. I even dreamed last night about a songbird chick in a nest, which was a hole in the grass. An elementary school full of children were in my backyard learning about life. I guess these little Peregrine Falcons and their very busy mom got to my heart. 🐣🐣 🐣 God go with you little ones
Hey Pamela - welcome aboard!
It can be tough to know what's going on the first year you watch the peregrines and watching on Shaw TV you have a great view but it is only just at one time of the day so you have only seen one part of their lives. The good news is that all the chicks at the Radisson are doing very well and in fact are doing as well as their brothers and sisters in previous years and are no different from their cousins around the province (we watch over them as well). Little brother, the last chick at the nestbox is 4 almost 5 days younger than his sisters which is why he hasn't fledge (taken his first flight yet) - getting bumped off (or being the bumpee) also may make him a little less impatient to get flying. He ended up fluttering down 30 storeys to the ground when he accidentally fledge, then he was rescued, transported, checked out for injuries, had a sleep-over, transported again and then was returned to the nestbox - all things he wasn't thrilled about so if he takes a bit more time to want to fly again, that's fine - he's getting stronger and braver everyday. His sister who also fledged accidentally with him spent four days hanging out by herself on a nearby rooftop out of sight of the nestbox before she tried flying again and we found her up with her sister across the street from the nestbox on Saturday. He on the other hand had his other sister with him until just a couple of days ago and he can see his parents and sisters most of the time, he just doesn't want to fly yet. And that's up to him - every peregrine has their own personality and he'll go when he doesn't want to be alone anymore - they all do eventually. And the parents will keep him and his sisters fed wherever they may be, then they will start tempting their chicks to follow them for the food so that they can start to teach them to chase prey and hunt. The chicks really like this stage of training!!
And don't worry about little brother's health, he's not weak at all (I have the cuts to prove it!) - it is warm in the nestbox at this time of the year so he likes to find the shade in the box or out on the balcony or on the ledge (which is out of camera view). And the peregrines like most predators (and our companion cats and dogs) spend a large part of every day napping both as chicks and as adults - so he's doing just what everyone else is doing. Occasionally you will see him with his wings drooping after a big flap on the edge of the nestbox - that's because he's still building up his wing strength and that's tough work for a chick that is only 43 days old.
So nothing to be worried about at this point, little brother is doing what we expect, just taking a little extra time and when you consider how small he was when he hatched, a little extra time is perfectly understandable. We've had chicks stay longer and some who didn't wait at all, every chick is different.
And if you haven't, please do vote for your favourite names for the chicks - maybe that will encourage him to fly
