CA / San Jose - 2009-15

[Kinderchick]

According to the website, all 4 chicks hatched Easter weekend and appear to be doing fine. Here are some facts that I found after digging around the website a bit...

2012 Season facts -

Eggs laid:  
#1:   February 25 @ ~7:20p
#2:   February 28 @ ~8:30a (61 hours after egg #1)
#3:   March 1 @ ~ 8:45p (60 hours after egg #2)
#4:   March 4 @ ~ 11:00p (timing extraordinary due to unusual circumstances with the loss of E.C.)

*Hard incubation began:  March 5, 2012  

(*) Hard incubation means minimal time away from the eggs

Eggs hatched:  Three Easter Eyasses ! Sunday, April 8.  #4 arrived overnight, first visible Monday morning.

4/8 @ 7:20a:  Clara stood to reveal one fluffy eyas, and one very wet eyas (newly born)
4/8 @ 10:15a:  Another very wet eyas was in evidence
4/9:  In the early morning hours #4 was visible in the nest
Banding Day: May 1, 2012  

[Kinderchick]

According to the website, the resident male from last year, know as "EC", was driven away from the nestsite in early March by a new male in the territory, after Clara had already laid 4 eggs. The new male has been observed delivering food to Clara and engaging in other courtship activity. He has also been sharing incubation duties with Clara so it looks as if he has established himself as the new resident male. "EC" has been spotted on a campus dormitory building less than a half mile from the nestsite, but has not attempted to return.

[Kinderchick]

2012 NESTING SEASON

Apparently, all 4 of the 2011 chicks at this nestsite hatched, were banded in late April 2011 and fledged successfully.

[skygirlblue]

Egg #4 this morning!!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/skygirlblue?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/elmNwQEMLzc

[skygirlblue]

Two eggs now...hoping for a 3rd today...

[carly]

2011 NESTING SEASON

Just saw posted on BCAW..Clara and EC have their first egg today too!  Let the season begin!

[Alison]

At the nest today:

 

[Alison]

Voting has begun for names for the chicks at San Jose:

Vote on falcon chick names

SAN JOSE, CA - Thursday is the last day to vote on names for San Jose City Hall's newest falcon chicks.  Voting for celebrity falcons Clara and Esteban Colbert's offspring - one female and two male chicks - ends at 5 p.m. Votes can be cast on the San Jose Peregrine Falcon Alliance website.

The choices for the lone female chick are Artemis, Aurora, Destiny, Estrellita and Maya.
The male names are Hunter, Kekoa, Milagro, Perry, Scout, Swift, Tez, Toofan, Velox, Vehemens and Vincent.

The names in the poll were suggested by schoolchildren in San Jose. The winning names will be announced on the website.

The falcon chicks were born last month on a ledge atop San Jose City Hall. Glenn Stewart, coordinator of the predatory bird research program at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who banded the chicks, said all three chicks are healthy.  This is Clara's fourth nesting season at City Hall and her second with mate Esteban Colbert.

The FalconCam, a live streaming video of the falcons' nest on a City Hall ledge 18 stories above the street, can be viewed on the San Jose city website.

http://www.news10.net/news/watercooler/story.aspx?storyid=81396&catid=335

To vote:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/9T6MYDM

[bcbird]

Thanks, for the links, Alison.
The video of the banded chicks is quite  cute.  
All three spend a bit of time peering down as if trying to see how the new bling looks.

[Alison]

From another article: there are two male chicks and one female.

SAN JOSE -- The three Peregrine Falcon fledglings sitting atop San Jose's City Hall have undergone an examination that will make naming them easier. Glen Stewart with the UC Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group has determined what their genders are. Two of them are male and the other is female.

After conducting the examination, Stewart was able to put bands on them. However, the banding did not come easily. Falcon parents Clara and Esteban Colbert swooped down on the perceived intruder 50 to 80 times while he was trying to work. He says that the parents thought they won the battle after he left the ledge.

Stewart says the fledglings are in "robust" condition.

San Jose students are holding a naming contest for the falcons.

http://kliv.com/Gender-of-falcon-chicks-determined/6956200

[Alison]

The three chicks were banded yesterday as planned:
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/San-Joses-Falcon-Chicks-Get-Sexed-92669674.html

And there is a short video of the chicks sporting their brand new bands:
http://www.youtube.com/SANJOSEPFA

[Alison]

The San Jose chicks will also be banded on Monday:

SJ and SF falcon falcon chicks to get check ups

SAN JOSE, CA (KGO) -- San Jose's world famous Peregrine Falcons will get a visit from a wildlife expert Monday morning.  The falcon parents nicknamed Clara and Esteban Colbert can be seen on a live webcam posted atop San Jose's City Hall.  A researcher will rappel down the side of the building to determine the sex of their baby chicks. The Peregrine chicks will also get banded so they can be identified later.

Also, some falcon chicks nesting on San Francisco's Beale Street PG&E building will also get banded.

Predatory bird researchers from UC Santa Cruz will also check the health of the chicks who live on the edge of the building's 33rd floor. Falcon fans can watch that activity on their live webcam starting at noon.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=7419499



The pic above is from another article on the San Jose chicks:  http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_14991603

[Kinderchick]

Interesting but very sad and all a part of life in the natural world, I guess.

[Alison]

It can be one or the other.  The adults do remove deceased chicks (depending on size in my experience).  I have heard anecdotally of dead chicks being fed to siblings but I've never seen anything like that ... and my question would be, if a chick dies, would an adult trust feeding it to its siblings.  That and peregrines don't practice siblicide or infanticide so I'm not sure it's a normal response to cannibalize their own young - but I admit its just outside my area of knowledge/experience.  As for outsiders removing chicks, I've done it before - both before and after we had the FalconCam.  I can't think of any other times that a chick was missing from the nest without my having removed it from the box.

It is very sad to hear that the little chick didn't make it.

Just wanted to add a couple of things to TPC's reply. One year at Black Dog, one of the chicks did not survive. Mom waited for a long time, then very gently lifted the little one and flew out of the nest with the chick.

In 2008 at the Richmond nest, there was something wrong with the chicks and they did not survive. Mom again carried them very gently out of the nest.

And unfortunately, I have seen a parent feed a chick who did not survive to the other chicks. Several years ago at King, one of the chicks lived only a few days. Belinda waited and waited for Doug (her former mate, and Mae's last mate) to return, but eventually she fed the lost chick to the others. It was speculated that Doug had taken too long to come back with food for the chicks. It is not common to see this, but sadly it does happen.

[Ellie]

Thanks TPC.  I had thought of the feeding it to the young also so am glad that you touched on that as well. A persons mind sure goes through a circuit of questions and answers in a situation like this.  Will have to see how it all plays out.  I notice that the cam is not up close any more so we will have to see what is said on the forum.  Thanks again.