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Hamilton Falconwatch News
VOLUNTEER ORIENTATION SESSION THIS FRIDAY
At 5:30PM, Friday, May 23rd, there will be a Falconwatch Volunteer Orientation Session at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre, Second Floor, 100 Main St. W. (corner of Bay St.). Please RSVP by e-mail if you are attending. See More
FOUR CHICKS IN HALF A DAY!
Saturday, May 3, 2025 (late afternoon update) - In what falcon watchers are quite sure is a new record, McKeever managed to time her brooding so perfectly that her four eggs, which were laid over a period of a week, all hatched within just 13 hours of each other. The last egg cracked around 3:30 this afternoon, and, over the next fifteen minutes, the chick broke its way out of its shell (photos).MAKE THAT THREE!
Saturday, May 3, 2025 (afternoon update) - Shortly before 2pm, the third chick hatched. You can see the small pink/damp chick at bottom right. We will hopefully get a better look when the next feeding happens.TWO CHICKS!
Saturday, May 3, 2025 - Around 3am this morning, a sharp-eyed falcon watcher caught a glimpse of a newly hatched chick. For the next 6 hours McKeever kept it mostly out of sight. We got our first decent look shortly after 8am. Then, at 9:38, a proud momma left the nest, and we got to see that a second chick had hatched. Based on the still-drying feathers, we would say it hatched within the last hour. Barely a minute later, McKeever was back. Rather obviously, Judson had been hunting, and so the chicks enjoyed their first meal. We expect to see the other two eggs hatch within the next day or so.WATCH THIS SPACE!
Friday, May 2, 2025 - We are noting some increased activity from the adults in the nest, inspecting the eggs more often, which we see in the 24 hours before hatching begins. We think that the adults can hear small noises from the chicks in their shells. A sure sign that hatching is not far off! Don't be fooled by the white mark on one of the eggs. It has been there several days.DUNDURN SEEN IN GALT
Monday, April 14, 2025 - While we are waiting patiently for McKeever to incubate her eggs, we are delighted to report that one of our 2022 chicks, Dundurn, was seen in the town of Galt, located near Cambridge, Ontario, around April 8th. He was seen in the company of another Peregrine, but there are not (yet) any indications that they are nesting. They may be looking for a suitable location. Our thanks to Rose Marie Osborne for capturing these photographs and sharing them with us.DONATIONS NEEDED - Now is the time to show your support for our Hamilton Peregrines! The Coordinator daily reports, the camera images and on-street Falconwatch equipment are all made possible by your contributions. Grants only pay for so much (and some years they are less than others). Please click on the yellow 'Donate!' button above to make an easy tax creditable donation. We and the birds Thank You!
FOUR ON THE FLOOR
Monday, March 31, 2025 - As expected, McKeever laid her fourth egg sometime late last night. We caught our first glimpse of it this morning. While we can't rule out the possibility of her laying a fifth egg, four is her usual number. Also, we must remember that, as clutches get larger, the chance of one or more eggs not hatching increases. If a fifth egg is laid, it is quite likely that not all five will hatch. We have never had five chicks in the Hamilton Nest. So, in our opinion, the countdown to hatching starts today. Roughly 35 days from now we should see our first chick!WHAT'S A LITTLE RAIN? EGG #3 IS HERE!
Friday, March 28, 2025 - Despite, the cold, wet weather, McKeever laid her third egg around 6:30 this evening. You can tell that the egg is freshly laid by its dark red color. It has not yet acquired a brown coating of dust. Don't be concerned if she doesn't sit on it right away. It has been warm inside her body all day, and, as mentioned in previous posts, she will let her eggs stay cool until she has finished laying. The chances are good she will lay a fourth. Look for it late Sunday night or early Monday morning.RIGHT ON TIME
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 - McKeever laid her second egg of 2025 shortly after 2:30 this afternoon. This is perfectly on time for Peregrines, with eggs being laid at intervals of slightly more than 2 days. Sharp-eyed watchers will note that McKeever is not yet brooding the eggs full time. This is done deliberately, so that the first 2 or 3 eggs will be cooler and develop more slowly. This will result in most of the eggs hatching within a 24-48 hour period, insuring that the chicks are all the same size as they rapidly develop. There won't be any issues with a smaller chick struggling to keep up with its siblings. Peregrine clutches typically range in size between 3-5 eggs. How many will McKeever lay this year? We will just have to wait and see. The next one should appear early Friday evening!EGG!!!
Monday, March 24, 2025 - This morning, at roughly 11:30am, McKeever laid her first egg of the 2025 nesting season at the Sheraton Hamilton hotel! She held off until the very last minute to choose whether she would lay her egg in the near or far corner of the ledge. On our webcams we saw her check out the near corner one last time, at 11:15, then walk up to the far corner. Roughly fifteen minutes later the egg appeared. We are happy she chose that corner again, because it provides a little more shelter from the elements, beneath the end of the Sheraton sign.SPRING IS HERE!
Thursday, March 20, 2025 - It is the first day of spring, and for the last week we have been seeing increased courting activity, with Judson bringing meals to McKeever. It won't be long until we see the first egg of 2025! It remains to be seen whether McKeever decides to lay her eggs in the far end of the ledge or return to using the scrape at the near end. The Peregrines have been seen poking about at both ends of the ledge, though it seems the far end is getting a bit more attention. If an egg is laid there, that scrape is deep enough we might not see it right away. So we will need to keep a close eye on how long McKeever spends 'sitting' in that scrape.BACKGROUND FOR 2025....
After their third successful year together, fledging two chicks, Judson and McKeever are spending the winter in Hamilton, where there is ample food, and warm spots to shelter from the worst of the winter weather. This will be McKeever's fourth year at the Hamilton nest, and Judson's fifth.
Judson arrived in Hamilton at the end of the nesting season in 2021. He came to us from Buffalo, New York, where he fledged from the Richardson Complex in 2018. In a delightful turn of events, one of his parents is Felker who fledged from Hamilton in 2012. So the prodigal (grand)son of Madame X and Surge has returned. He arrived too late to mate with Lily, who, sadly, fell ill and died early in 2022, so, apart from a brief time keeping Lily company on the ledge, his first and only mate has been....
McKeever, fledged from a nest on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, in 2019. She is named in honor of Kay McKeever of the Owl Foundation. Her arrival was first noticed on January 22, 2022, when we observed that there were still two adults landing at the nest ledge while Lily (the previous female) was being cared for at the Owl Foundation. A quick check of our webcam archives showed that McKeever had been present for a few days by that point. We don't know if she had a territorial battle with Lily which resulted in the latter being too injured to survive, or whether Lily had taken ill and this newcomer had simply filled in the void left by Lily's absence. In any event, McKeever was quickly accepted by Judson, and the pair produced four chicks their first year together, and four more in 2023. Last year, three chicks hatched, but, sadly, one of them died from an unknown illness before fledging. The remaining two chicks fledged strongly without any need for rescues.
2024 also saw a significant upgrade to Camera #2, with a new, Wisenet HD Camera being donated by Hanwha Vision. The camera was installed in February by Eric Luehmann of Hamilton Video & Sound. Major funding for this work and additional equipment, was provided by a Hamilton Ward 2 community grant, obtained through Councillor Cameron Kroetsch. This camera significantly improved our ability to monitor the fledglings as they flew from rooftop to rooftop. HCPP Thanks all these organizations for their generous support!
While peregrines are normally a migratory species, sometimes they choose to spend the winter in their nesting territory if there is enough food to last through the winter. Many bird species exhibit a trait called 'site fidelity'. If at least one of a pair that used a nest site in the previous year returns, and if there have been no significant physical changes to disturb either the nest itself or the birds generally, they will use the same nest site year after year. Peregrine Falcons are known for this trait. This will be the thirty-first year the same nest site on the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel has been used.
To read FalconWatch Reports from previous years, click on the History button above.
Thank you to all our visitors and supporters for your ongoing encouragement.
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Web page created by
Charles Gregory
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