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Hamilton Falconwatch News
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.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!
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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