KS / Topeka - Westar - 2019-20

[Ellie]

Thank you for that Kittenface   What beautiful "juvies". So glad all is well at this site

[kittenface]

I got this in an Email today

Falcon Watchers -

A couple Westar folks were able to get on the Westar rooftop yesterday and check on the falcons. Late last week we had a slight scare and it was believed that something happened to Doorly. We confirmed that Hope and Doorly as well as the two young are doing just fine.  Wes and Star continue to learn how to fly in an area that is very suitable to their needs. Mom and Dad continue to look after them.

The front falcon cam can only view the falcons at certain times and is maintained by our security folks so it's not able to catch them very often.   We did get some additional pictures yesterday and they have been added to the existing slide show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/westarenergy/sets/72157624024235671/show/  

[Alison]

Two demanding chicks; the parent with them is Hope.

 

 

[Kinderchick]

...And it's nice to know that they have finally confirmed the male's correct name - Doorly lives!

Yes!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Note from the Westar folks yesterday afternoon ...

Falcon Lovers -

Our falcon banding went smoothly this morning.  We believe the first born bird to be female and the second born bird to be male (brother and sister). At this age it's difficult to tell the sex for sure, but we look at the size of the feet relative to the size of the bird and the beak width (female is wider).

We apologize for the smudge on the side-cam. During the banding, we attempted to quickly clean the lens, but it appears we were unsuccessful. It's important that we don't disturb the birds anymore than necessary, so it looks like we'll be stuck with the smudge until the young falcons fledge.  

Pictures from today's banding can be found under the web cam information on this page:
http://www.westarenergy.com/corp_com/contentmgt.nsf/publishedpages/community%20services%20green%20team%20falcons

Don't forget to submit your names for the naming contest, we've already received several suggestions:
http://www.westarenergy.com/corp_com/contentmgt.nsf/publishedpages/2010%20falcon%20naming%20contest

And it's nice to know that they have finally confirmed the male's correct name - Doorly lives!

[Alison]

The two chicks at the Topeka nest have been banded, and Doorly has now been identified as the male.

Baby falcons deemed healthy

Two small peregrine falcons hatched earlier this month.  Like an infant who goes to the doctor for a well-baby checkup, two small peregrine falcons that hatched earlier this month in a nesting box near the top of the Westar Energy building in downtown Topeka were examined Thursday for the first time.  And, by all accounts, the birds appear to be doing just fine.

"Both chicks were very healthy," pronounced Brad Loveless, director of biology and conservation programs for Westar. "We can't be sure, but our best bet is that the larger of the two is a female, based on the size of her feet relative to her body size. The smaller one appears to be a male."

Loveless was one of Westar's Green Team members who plucked the chicks from their nesting box, high up on the south side of the Westar Energy Building at 818 S. Kansas Ave.  The birds' mother, Hope, didn't approve of the meddling, as evidenced by her angry screeches and circling above the nesting box.  

But after identification bands were placed on the legs of each baby bird and blood drawn for DNA testing, the chicks were returned to their nesting box, much to the relief of Hope.  Blood samples from each of the chicks are to be sent to a raptor center at the University of Minnesota for analysis. The raptor center tracks bird migration and mating patterns.  The small falcons pecked their way out of their shells on May 9 and May 12.  Two other eggs were in the nest. One falcon was killed by one of its parents and fed to its siblings after being born May 13. The other egg remained in the nesting box but didn't hatch.

People in Topeka, across the nation and around the world have been keeping tabs on the chicks' progress, thanks to two webcams mounted near the nesting box. The website is www.westarenergy.com/greenteam.  Loveless said the adult male falcon originally was thought to be named Zeus, but it was determined recently that he actually was another bird named Doorly, which migrated to Topeka from Omaha, Neb.

The chicks will continue to grow over the next few weeks, and soon it will become evident which is the female and which is the male. Loveless said the female peregrine falcon, which is dominant, is about one and a half times the size of her male counterpart.  As the chicks grow, they will begin to inch closer to the edge of their nesting box, Loveless said, eventually spreading their wings to get a feel of the wind.  In the next three or four weeks, the birds will take off for their maiden flight — something Loveless said was fraught with danger.

"That's really a hazardous time," Loveless said. "There's a high mortality rate."  Nonetheless, all the small falcons that hatched in the Westar nesting box during the past few years survived their first flight, Loveless said, though some barely make it to the ledge of another building.  Once there, the small falcons may wait several hours or even a day before taking off again. In the meantime, the birds' parents will continue to feed them, even though they aren't in their nest, as the small birds can't fend for themselves yet.

Loveless said after the birds get the hang of flying, they will venture farther from the Westar building. In past years, the falcons have been spotted in back yards across the city.  Then, when the weather turns cooler in the fall, the small falcons will take off, flying as far as South America.

source:  http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-05-27/baby_falcons_deemed_healthy

Photos by Thad Allton.  More photos with the article.

   

[Alison]

Just so y'all know I haven't heard back yet from the Topeka Project about the name change for Doorly ... have sent them another message, so hopefully the reminder will prompt an response soon. 

I hope so too . . .

Watching over the chicks:

 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Just so y'all know I haven't heard back yet from the Topeka Project about the name change for Doorly ... have sent them another message, so hopefully the reminder will prompt an response soon.

[Alison]

One of the parents (Hope?) with the chicks today:

 

 

[Alison]

An article on the Topeka nest:

Two Westar falcon chicks survive

But third arrival fails to survive eating instincts of its older siblings.  Two baby peregrine falcons appeared to be alive and well Saturday after being born this past week in a nest near the top of the Westar Energy building in downtown Topeka, said Brad Loveless, Westar's director of biology and conservation programs.  Loveless said a third falcon was killed by one of its parents and fed to its siblings after being born Thursday, while a fourth egg remained in the nest but wasn't expected to hatch.

Two webcams kept watch Saturday on the nest where the falcons were born to a male peregrine known as Zeus and a female named Hope, who had been nesting on the eggs since they were laid between April 1 and 3.  Loveless said although the eggs were laid over a three-day period, Hope didn't start incubating them until the final egg arrived.  He said that apparently was done to try to keep the hatch time for the eggs close together so the chicks born first wouldn't develop a size advantage that would enable them to killer their younger and smaller siblings, as often happens with birds of prey.

The first falcon pecked its way out of its eggshell last Sunday. Another was hatched Wednesday morning.  The third was born — and died — on Thursday.  When the surviving chicks are about 3 or 4 weeks old, an identification band will be placed around a leg of each, and their gender will be determined.

source: http://cjonline.com/news/local/2010-05-15/two_westar_falcon_chicks_survive

[Kinderchick]

If you look carefully, it looks like Hope & Doorly have found the smallest stones and put them all together in the middle of the box ....

Yes, you're absolutely right, TPC! How ingenius of them! And what a good eye you have, TPC!

[The Peregrine Chick]

If you look carefully, it looks like Hope & Doorly have found the smallest stones and put them all together in the middle of the box ....

And I have an email into the Topeka contact about the name confusion ...

[Kinderchick]

Yes, you're right, jadoo. The gravel that TPC has used looks a lot smaller and smoother. Nice and "cushie" for wee little chicks, I would think!

[jadoo]

...oh, i agree, i'm just comparing it to the gravel that TPC used, or the gravel you can see at the Ohio site...this stuff looks like a nightmare for fluffy-bottomed chicks...

[Kinderchick]

Well don't forget that they are cliff dwellers, jadoo. It must be pretty rough living on the edge of a cliff.