The Project > Ask the Peregrine Chick
Of Peregrines & Nest Scrapes
kekes:
Thank you! shall do!!! ;)
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: kekes on July 23, 2016, 19:47 ---great info, thank you! :) Hoping one of those sites is out towards Selkirk, Im just north, hop and skip, if you jump you have gone to far . 10 acres, but with aircraft, it would not make a good nesting area. >:(
hopefully I get to see some out here!
--- End quote ---
If you want to see some Kekes, your best bet is to keep your eye on places like Netley-Libau and Oak Hammock Marsh, particularly from now through the fall. Peregrines used to be called Duck Hawks for good reason, other than nesting, they tend to be found near/at wetlands hunting small ducks (up to mallard size) and shorebirds (they are particularly partial to sora rails). Not that they are ever easy to find, even when you know where they nest, but if you happen to be near a marsh, keep your eyes open and look way up - and investigate the different flight silhouettes for birds of prey - if you can rule some out right away, it makes it easier to focus in on the possibles. Pay attention in particular to Marsh Hawks (Northern Harriers) - they are, unsurprisingly given their names, common at wetlands, tend to fly low and their silhouette isn't the same but when you are looking and just see a flash, everything starts to look like a peregrine. Once the chicks head out on their own in the next month or two, they will be marsh-hopping for sure. And take a camera or your phone - even a blurry picture or a long-shot can help to id what you see.
Good luck!
kekes:
great info, thank you! :) Hoping one of those sites is out towards Selkirk, Im just north, hop and skip, if you jump you have gone to far . 10 acres, but with aircraft, it would not make a good nesting area. >:(
hopefully I get to see some out here!
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: kekes on July 21, 2016, 18:19 ---Thank you for the reply. They are truly remarkable creatures. Is there anything we can do to encourage more nesting, like building better nesting options?
--- End quote ---
No, not really. But having said that nesting is really a function of location, location, location. They tend to have preferences geographically but can't be too close to their neighbours (or shouldn't be). And a city is always changing, more buildings downtown could be a good thing or a bad thing for the chicks, we have to see what happens. They may or may not like a nestbox we provide. They may or may not use a nestbox we provide. We may not like where they nest because of safety and security issues. They may not be able to nest where they want to nest because of other concerns if it is say a commercial building or an industrial site. And then throw in that every bird is different and there really is no way to predict anything. We take our cues from the birds and try to make a spot they have shown some interest in that is safe for them, more appealing. Doesn't always work. We have a great nestsite just waiting for tenants but not happening. So we are going to try and tweak the location a bit - basically move it 10 feet and see if that has more appeal. We aren't getting uptake where it is, so we tweak, even if it is only ten feet. If it works, we put the note in our mental user's guide and incorporate it into new sites that become available. At the moment we have two sites to tweak and two, hopefully three new ones where we want to install something - they aren't sites where the birds have nested before, but have been visited more than a few times so there is something appealing about the site without them being too close to the neighbours.
Hope that answers your question ...
kekes:
Thank you for the reply. They are truly remarkable creatures. Is there anything we can do to encourage more nesting, like building better nesting options?
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