Names for the chicks ...
male = Tenzing - after Tenzing Norgay
female = Hillary - after Edmund Hillary
This year is the 60th anniversary of the first ascent of Mount Everest ...
In 1953, a ninth British expedition, led by John Hunt, returned to Nepal. Hunt selected two climbing pairs to attempt to reach the summit. The first pair (Tom Bourdillon and Charles Evans) came within 100 m (330 ft) of the summit on 26 May 1953, but turned back after running into oxygen problems. As planned, their work in route finding and breaking trail and their caches of extra oxygen were of great aid to the following pair. Two days later, the expedition made its second and final assault on the summit with its second climbing pair, the New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, a Nepali sherpa climber from Darjeeling, India. They reached the summit at 11:30 am local time on 29 May 1953 via the South Col Route. At the time, both acknowledged it as a team effort by the whole expedition, but Tenzing revealed a few years later that Hillary had put his foot on the summit first.They paused at the summit to take photographs and buried a few sweets and a small cross in the snow before descending. (Wikipedia)
Because of equipment delays this year, we couldn't get to the chicks to band them so in a way, the nestledge has been the Project's Everest. For the peregrines however, the official Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Qomolangma, literally "Holy Mother" - a poetic but somewhat appropriate name for a nestbox or nestledge. A high place to protect the chicks.
