31 May

She's back! We have three lively eyasses on the ledge again. Last evening, the female that was taken from the ledge during banding, to be treated for frounce, was reunited with her siblings. The banding team returned to the ledge to take her home and also to give a preventive dose of medication (for frounce) to the other two young. All appear to be in great health. We thank the vets and staff at the Animal Health Department at Woodland Park Zoo for successfully curing her and also the staff at the Raptor Center at the zoo for their assistance.

She was gently placed in the nest box, but immediately jumped out to yell at her handlers. Bell was furious at another intrusion into her domain. The score was Bell 6+, intruders 0, as she hit both men on the ledge three times each and flew off with a hat. After the intruders left, the three eyasses jockied a bit for position in the nest box, two took walks down the ledge, outside the light bar, and then all settled back into the normal routines of rapidly changing eyasses. Eating, sleeping, preening, wing flapping, and walking around are the main activities on their daily agendas, for the time being. Soon, they'll also be flying.

30 May

As you know, the eyasses left the nest box last Friday afternoon. For several days before that, they tromped around in the nest box, and they stood on the edge and looked down onto the main ledge, but the sight of Bell plucking a fresh meal a few feet away was apparently what lured them to leave. They now are able to explore a ledge that is about 25 feet in length; It is a safe, roomy space for them.

Our camera covers about 3/4 of the ledge and does not pan or tilt, so we have backed it off about half way. If we left it on just the nest box and the immediate surrounding area, we would seldom see them at all, since they are moving back and forth on the ledge. As their legs get stronger and their coordination improves, they will become more active, and we will see them more often.

We've had some questions about where Stewart was during banding. Stewart leaves driving off human intruders to Bell. While he fiercely defends their territory against red-tails, bald eagles, and other avian intruders, he is apparently fearful of humans. We have only seen him once during banding; he perched on the north face of the building, presumably guarding it, while Bell screamed at and swooped at the banders.

In peregrines, the female is usually the most aggressive and the main defender of the eyrie, but this varies from pair to pair. Sometimes the male is the more aggressive; sometimes pairs appear to share defense. Our pair both defend against feathered threats, but he leaves the "people problems" to her.

Bell has no fear of humans. During the non-breeding season, when she is much less aggressive, it is not uncommon for her to perch a few feet from workers on the building and watch them as they carry out their tasks.

25 May

The eyasses took those big steps today and left the security of the nest box to venture out on the ledge. We will back the camera off and try to capture as much of their activity as we can. Don't worry if they are not visible on camera. Sometimes they are seldom in view for the first two or three days after leaving the box, but, as their legs get stronger and their coordination improves, they will be back in view.

23 May

Three fuzzy eyasses, two females and a male, were banded yesterday, May 22. Unfortunately, one of the females has frounce (a type of avian trichomoniasis), so she was removed from the ledge and is now being evaluated and treated by a vet. At this time, it appears that she may be treated early enough in the progression of the disease to have a full recovery.

This disease is caused by a protozoan parasite carried by pigeons. It is nasty stuff. Plaque-like structures form in the bird's mouth, esophagus, and crop, and, if not treated, the bird either suffocates or starves from blockage caused by the plaque. We lost two young to frounce in 1995 and one in 1996. These birds had either fledged or were ready to fledge, so they were too mobile to catch until they were weakened by the disease. For them, it was too late for effective treatment. So, we're lucky that we were able to catch it earlier in this young female. We will post updates on her progress.

During banding, Bell, as usual, became a screeching, feathered fury when the window washing stage started to swing out in the direction of the nest ledge. She has never shown fear of humans, and this is never more obvious than during banding. She landed on the railing of the stage and stayed there until it neared the ledge; then she began strafing the engineer running the stage and the two banders. Between flights, she perched on the stage or on the ledge itself, hurling peregrine invective at the intruders. She was, of course, doing what she's supposed to do - vigorously defending her chicks. She rode the railing of the stage all the way back up to the top of the building. Probably, from her point of view, she had successfully defended her young and chased the intruders off! A few minutes later, she flew to the nest ledge to check on the eyasses, and life on the ledge returned to its normal routine.

17 May

What a difference a couple of weeks makes! What a transformation! Two weeks ago, the eyasses were tiny and weak. Their vision was poor, they responded to Bell's "chirps" by opening their beaks so she could put food there, and they had no apparent awareness of anything beyond her warmth, their own fuzzy huddle during the few minutes they were left uncovered, and the food Bell put in their mouths.

Today, after uncountable meals stuffed into them by their mother, they are alert, they are eager for food (on the rare occasions that they are left without food for long enough to get hungry), and their fuzzy heads turn and dark eyes follow the world beyond the ledge. They preen, attempt to flap their wings, and shuffle around awkwardly in the nest box. We expect their first explorations of the ledge within a few days.

A few "real" feathers are beginning to peek out from under the coats of white fluff, and we can see a hint of the peregrine facial pattern they'll wear as fully feathered birds. Watch them change from day to day.

15 May

Two things have been very obvious over the last two weeks: Bell is stuffing food into the eyasses at a rapid rate, and they're responding in the way they should. They are visibly larger, stronger, more alert, and more active every day. They've changed from being barely able to sit up and gape for food to a much more active approach - reaching with ready beaks for the prey Bell gives them. Pigeons have been the staple fare, with small, unidentified passerine prey for a little variety.

Peregrine chicks grow a second, thicker coat of down at about ten days, so now they are much fluffier than with the sparse white coats they wore as new hatchlings. They are also warmer; the thicker down provides additional insulation, so that they don't need to be brooded as much. While Bell seldom left them uncovered for more than a minute when they were tiny, she is now leaving them uncovered for longer periods of time, especially on warm, dry days. She is still covering them at night.

We've had several questions, both on this web site and on our local hotline, about what happened to the eyas that died. We know that Stewart carried it away from the nest box; we don't know what he did with it. While it's always sad and disappointing to lose an eyas, it's reassuring that the others appear to be in great shape.

4 May

It appears that one of the four tiny eyas falcons has died. All thought this is not uncommon, we have not able to determine the exact cause as of yet. We are reviewing our 24 hour time lapse video tapes for any clues. The weather here has been cool and quite rainy the past few days. This may have had a bearing on matters. We will provide you with any information as we discover more. The other three youngsters are doing just great as Bell is an experienced and dedicated parent.

3 May

Now there are four tiny eyasses. The hatch of the third eyas was between 0903 and 0914 on April 30, and the fourth hatched before 0012 on May 1, when half of an egg shell popped out from under Bell. She was covering her fragile youngsters very closely, in chilly, damp weather, so we were not able to see the actual hatch.
We will have further updates on the eyasses soon.