Other Peregrine Projects > Canadian Peregrines
AB / Edmonton - Weber Centre - 2009-18
bev.:
This is the most difficult thing I have had to do in a long time Many of you that know me via the cam, have probably noticed that I have not posted much this week. It is beca use I have been camped out at Weber building.
Monday of this week, June22, Peter and went down to the site and we noticed that the male was not there. We thought he went out hunting.
But he did not come back and relieve Miss Edmonton, as he usually does in the evening. We stayed there until dark and no male. but Miss Edmonton kept eggs incubated except for a few minutes. She was not stressed at all.
Tuesday I spent all day at the site except for 1.5 hours. No male the whole time. Miss Edmonton only left for about 3 minutes , to the Weber building to their stash. Probably to eat. I went home in that 1.5 hours to notify the biologists.
Tuesday night Miss Edmonton called and called, and I cried and cried.
Wednesday I went down for most of the day and by now Miss Edmonton is only on the eggs intermittently. No male. I mentioned to the biologists that it would be nice if dummy eggs were put in and hers taken out to incubate. Dummy eggs , in case the male comes back or she attracts another. On Wednesday ,Miss Edmonton flew in all the directions that the male usually went. She was looking for him. She perched on all his perches plus her own. I kept her company as I wept . I knew that eventually she would have to leave the eggs more and more so she could hunt.
Thursday , due to family commitments I could not go down. but the biologist e-mailed me and he had gone to the Weber building nest site and put dummy eggs in the nest and took out hers. Gord said she had 3 eggs. Miss Edmonton flew over the building while he switched eggs but she made no sound which he said was strange. He then took them out to TEfrys(falcon breeders) and they incubated them for 20 minutes and then candled them. 2 eggs had live embryo. So they will incubate them. This brightened my day .
I know that we are not to get attached but anyone that knows me knows that this is my girl and I so wanted her to have a good year. I understand all about nature and everything but I was literally sick all week. We have no idea what happened to the male. We scoured the area and no sign. He would not have just up and left so something must have happened while he was out hunting. It could not be an intruder or the intruder would still be around.
We believe he went missing sometime Monday as Miss Edmonton was not stressed on Monday at all. Peter and I went down Friday night and today. Friday night she was still facing the nest site but on the Weber building. She flew off and stooped pigeons at a distance but did not stay away long.
Today she was on the E on the Weber building but after a while she flew on the opposite side on the W. She had no view of the nest site so she has abandoned it. I knew this would happen. Words can not describe the empty pit in my stomach . everything looked so good . He was a great male.
So we will continue to go down every second day just to make sure she is O.K. and to see if a new male turns up just to keep her company for the rest of the season. I guess It is better it happens now than just when the eggs would be about to hatch. So with a heavy heart I will sign off now.
allikat:
Bev..thank you very much for the updates!!! Hope all is well!
Alison:
Thank you for the update and pics, Bev! I hope everything is okay with Miss Edmonton and Beau. They both deserve only good things.
carly:
Thanks for the update Bev. I hope the nest and eggs are okay and didn't suffer any damage.
bev.:
WE went down on Friday June19 adn everything wa O.K> I got a few shots of male but blued out the background fro obvious reasons. there were also some shots of Miss Edmonton. We could have got some good flying ones of Male but did not want to be obvious. We will go down again tonight to just check as we had a real downpour ,in St. Albert last night. I want to make sure everything is O>k. at the site.It was like a monssoon here. WOW!!!!! Do not know what it was like at the site.
slideshow - http://s187.photobucket.com/albums/x135/fullbrandt/bev%2014/?action=view¤t=fb1466ac.pbw[/URL
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version