March 28, 2011 - In the last couple of days, the amount of time that Madame X and Surge have been spending in the scrape has increased significantly. We have captured several photos of them moving gravel with their beaks. Click on the Gallery link above, and click on "Webcam Favorites" to see the best shots taken with our new camera.

In addition to better close-ups, you will see that we can now capture images of the birds roosting on other parts of the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel, and on nearby buildings.

We are watching closely for the first egg, which should appear sometime within the next week!

WE - AND THE FALCONS - ARE BACK!!!!!!

February 4, 2011 - Happy New Year FalconFans!

While 2011 is already a month old, the biological new year - Spring - is just around the corner. Madame X and Surge (we think) again spent the winter in their familiar haunts in downtown Hamilton. HCPP volunteers frequently see the pair on the Standard Life Building next door to the Sheraton nest site. Madame X is back for her eleventh year and Surge (if it is him)for his sixth season.

In 2010 Madame X and Surge hatched four chicks, Chedoke, Joseph, Henderson and Peter - all named after Hamilton hospitals. Although there was a very public rescue during the fledging period, all four chicks fledged successfully. You can read more about their exploits in the History section.

Things have been busy in the 'off' season. Remember the weed? Well, it's gone, if not for good we expect at least for a long time. We've also installed a new TV camera to give us better pictures not only of nest ledge activity but also views of the surrounding area. In early December we heard that Peter, one of the 2010 brood, was spotted alive and well at the Leslie Street spit in Toronto. Interestingly enough, he has managed to get rid of his metal USFWS identification band during his travels.

With assistance from Mike Street of Falconwatch and Ryan Laird Iverson of the Sheraton Hamilton, Anne Yagi of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources organized a group of volunteers to replace the gravel in the Peregrine's nest ledge on November 7, 2010. This task, last done in 2002, was necessary to eliminate falcon waste that could be a source of infection for the chicks as well as providing nourishment for the large weeds which have grown in the ledge in the past few years. Our regular climbers, John Millar and Chris Phinney, repeated their banding day activities but with a twist. Instead of raising and lowering falcon chicks, they were moving heavy buckets of gravel. (Photo - Anne Yagi)

The first step was to remove the old gravel, followed by a wash down of the ledge. Then the new gravel was moved into place and spread around. In addition to Anne, John and Chris, volunteers were Lori and Devin Mills, Kendra Bishop, and Anne's daughters Katharine and Heather Yagi. During the operation, which took several hours, Madame X made several close passes but did not repeat her shirt-grabbing effort of last June. (Photo - Ryan Iverson)

The Hamilton Community Peregrine Project (HCPP), more commonly known as Falconwatch, and our partner, Hamilton Video and Sound, have installed a second video camera for use in monitoring the activities of the Sheraton Hamilton Peregrine Falcons. HVS Technician John Hosszu and Sales Representative Gord Faulkner installed the camera on 26 January 2011 with help from Ryan Laird Iverson of the Sheraton Hamilton and Falconwatch volunteers Charles Gregory, John Merriman and Mike Street. The old camera has been left in place for use as a back-up and other video requirements.(Photo - Mike Street)

Funded by a generous grant from the TD-Canada Trust Friends of the Environment Fund, the new camera is a completely up-to-date technical marvel with pan, tilt and zoom capability. It can also be operated remotely via the Internet, which will be very helpful - people will not have to go downtown - when adjustments are required. Although still in the minuses Centigrade, the weather on installation day was a lot warmer than it had been and the job went very well. Madame X came over several times to see what was going on, but since no one attempted to access the nest ledge she was not aggressive.(Photo - Mike Street)

As the days grow longer and the breeding season approaches, the peregrines' territorial instincts are on the rise, making them more ready to defend their turf from potential intruders. Local construction cranes and Red-tailed Hawks have already been warned. We are on the lookout for courting and nesting behaviour and expect to see eggs in late March or early April. The falcon camera will be activated in the next few weeks, once we get telephone lines and computer communications set up.

Madame X was hatched on a bridge on Pennsylvania Route 309, the Cross-Valley Expressway in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Banded as a hatchling on 7 June 1999, she was known to the falcon watchers in Northeast PA as 'Runaround Sue', a name suggested after she was found running along the expressway guide wall one morning. We are keeping the folks in Pennsylvania posted on Madame X's progress.

Hatched and banded in Etobicoke in 2002, Surge spent at least part of the 2004-2005 seasons trying to establish a nest at the Burlington Lift Bridge. In 2006 he replaced the male at the Sheraton nest and has been in Hamilton since.

Many birds exhibit a trait called 'site fidelity'. If at least one of a pair that used a nest site in the previous year return, 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 over and over again, year after year. Peregrine Falcons are known for site fidelity. This will be the sixteenth 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.