Radisson - 2015 / Smiley & Princess

[The Peregrine Chick]

Because Princess and Smiley are much closer in size than Princess/Trey or Princess/Ivy, I'm not sure who is on the eggs - I think Princess though.  Whoever is on the nest, the other one is tucked up under the eves on the Sterling Building.   (Pam's favourite perch  )

[The Peregrine Chick]

Haven't been able to see how many eggs we have since the weather turned colder - as predicted, Princess parked herself on the eggs and the two of them have been velcroed to them ever since.  Last year they had three - given that she didn't immediately begin incubating after egg 2, I suspect we have at least three eggs.  We are using the spycam at the moment so we have no recording function so at some point Dennis or I will catch a shirt change and we will get the final count.

[The Peregrine Chick]

What a lovely clean, DRY nestbox..... Princess, what were you thinking???    Next couple days - Snow, Rain, COLD .....sigh.... ..... TPC, any chance of getting a Tupper-bin on the ledge this year?  I remember it made all the difference last time it was used.  Never fails in June we have huge downpours ... 

Getting up there is the problem.  If we put a tuppernest there then we have to get back up there to remove it - it wouldn't survive there over the winter and would be a hazard once it broke down to both the chicks and pedestrians.  Last year we couldn't get up even once in order to band the chicks.  But we are going to keep an eye on opportunities and keep our options open.  Princess and her eggs aren't in danger at the moment so let's not look for trouble before some looks like it might be on the way 

[ballywing]

What a lovely clean, DRY nestbox..... Princess, what were you thinking???    Next couple days - Snow, Rain, COLD .....sigh.... ..... TPC, any chance of getting a Tupper-bin on the ledge this year?  I remember it made all the difference last time it was used.  Never fails in June we have huge downpours ...

[The Peregrine Chick]

Haven't been able to see how many eggs Princess has as of this morning - raining too much.  What I can see is one soggy bird clamped down on however many eggs she does have.




This is what the nestbox looks like right now - scrape is at the far end as usual.  And also how much rain as of 1130h CDT - enough to have puddles on the nestbox ledge.

 

Have had to pull back on the telephoto now, there is enough water on the camera that a huge droplet has formed on the environmental case and I can't see through it.  Fortunately, the rain hasn't been able to get inside since we installed this unit back in 2006.  (thanks Eye-Spy!!)

[The Peregrine Chick]

Still just two eggs as of 0900h CDT today.
Right now Princess is on the slash on the sign right above the nestledge and Smiley is parked on the nestledge edge guarding his kids-to-be

[Saoirse]

So great to know that Princess if back, laying eggs -- sorry that she chose that east ledge (I know it makes almost everything much more difficult for you, TPC) and will definitely have my fingers crossed firmly when fledge time comes along.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Has the camera's been activated yet?

The cameras are on all year, but the public FalconCam doesn't go live until just before the eggs hatch.  

CBC has changed some of its web content software so they are working on getting the video to stream, hopefully we will have more information by the end of the month.  If Princess lays tomorrow and begins incubating then, we have just over a month until the eggs hatch so just after the Victoria Day weekend.

[newchick]

Has the camera's been activated yet?

[The Peregrine Chick]

Still just two eggs here. 

If Princess lays a third egg tomorrow, depending on how warm it is (forecast is for a high of 17C), they may put off the start of incubation until later in the day.  Looking at the forecast for Sunday and Monday, I suspect she will park herself on however many eggs she has at that point:  Sunday the temperature drops to a high of 9C with an 80% change of rain.  Sunday is cooler (high of 6C that feels like 0C) with 60% chance of mixed precipitation (rain/snow).

Will be interesting to see what happens ...

[bev.]

this is good news.

when my daughter goes there on business I will have to send her there to take a gander for me.

[moka]

Gotta love our Princess!

[GCG]

  This is great news TPC. I was worried that is she tried to lay the second egg yesterday in the wind, she would have had to lay it three times. Phew!

[The Peregrine Chick]

Smiley and/or Princess have rolled egg 1 back into the scrape and have added a sibeggling to this year's new family 

So far, Princess is laying right on schedule.  If there are four eggs, likely egg three will be laid on Saturday and incubation will begin and we will have a full house by Monday. 

[allikat]

Great news that we have our first egg!!!
I have to add, I am also not all that fond of the east nestledge either, but, Princess chose that spot, and there is nothing we can do about it.  There are reasons for everything.
There have been many successful fledges from this site - with many watchful eyes (a bonus for the phanatics: more watchers = more involvement)
It's human nature for our brains to bounce back to 2008, it was a very wet season - uncontrollable, but we need to let that go.  
The birds don't remember that, this is nature, and nature will take its course.
We will all be watching holding our breaths when the wind blows, and when the rain comes, but, these Falcons will do what they do best.  And we have Princess, she is by far, one of the best in the business and she will protect to the best of her ability.

And...another season begins!!!