Any moment now~ and while we are waiting........Pa. just started hatching today.

Jersey City peregrine webcam returns and incubation has started for potential falcon family

By The Jersey Journal
April 03, 2010, 5:52PM


An adult male peregrine falcon stands guard of his nest below holding 2 chicks atop 101 Hudson Street in Jersey City in May 2008.The falcon nest has been in place since 2001, with the parent Peregrines having some successes and some failures with egg laying over the years.


Webcam shot of female falcon keeping her eggs warm and safe in Jersey City waterfront skyscraper nest.

Life is beginning anew on top of the Jersey City waterfront skyscraper, 101 Hudson St., where biologists in New Jersey's Endangered and Nongame Species Program are keeping watch on a female peregrine falcon who has laid eggs, the first on March 21.

The biologists also have restarted the webcam which the public can use to watch nature take its course. There are 32 to 33 days of incubation before the eggs begin to hatch, according to the Peregrine Nestbox News.

Nestbox's last report notes: "Unless a fifth egg is laid (a rare occurrence), the female has finished laying eggs for this season. A fourth egg was seen this morning when she briefly left the nestbox, revealing the eggs within the gravel scrape. If that is the case, incubation is beginning."

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reminds webcam viewers that they can do their part to support the work of the biologists by remembering to Check-off for Wildlife when completing their state tax form.



JC CAM

Cool Jersey City Peregrine Falcon webcam! Much thanks for the link!

Our sister PA. cam

The Falcon came to the nest as started watching it!

I just checked the cam for the 1st time this year. Uh oh. 2 eggs with no bird in sight in sub 40 deg weather. That can't be good.

Edit: I just reread the latest nestbox news: " Once the female has finished laying her eggs incubation will begin". Does this really mean that they just sit there "in the fridge" till she finally sits on them?

Oh no! But thank YOU so much for keeping us updated.

Nestbox News is an account of activity at a nestbox placed atop Mack-Cali Realty Corporation's 101 Hudson St., Jersey City, by biologists in the Endangered and Nongame Species Program (ENSP). Follow this chronicle of the nesting behavior and activity of peregrine falcons and their chicks.

July 2, 2009
We apologize for the recent video outage. After checking all the controls on our end and finding nothing wrong, we determined it was on Verizon's end, and -finally- it was restored. In the down time, we lost some good viewing opportunities of the young on the roof.

We have this news and some photos from nest watcher Bonnie T.:
I went down on Sat. and Sun, June 27 and 28, and was treated to eyases bouncing and sleeping on the ledge. Both parents are keeping a close eye on the young. They position themselves east and west or in the middle depending on where the eyases are.

We have other observations from Michael G. from Sunday, June 28, street-side at Hudson and Columbus Avenue:

Around 9:58-10:10 AM, observed both adults soaring over 101 Hudson & adjacent buildings. They made several fly-overs of 3 eyases on rooftop (whose begging cries were clearly heard).
10:02 AM, saw a possible aerial prey transfer between adults. Both birds were flying towards each other (1 from PATH building, 1 from 101 Hudson and vocalizing). They appeared to make brief contact, then separated. 1 adult flew back to 101 Hudson and appeared to land near nestbox. The other adult circled near 101 Hudson before making its way back towards the PATH building.
10:13-10:25 AM, saw 2 eyases sitting on the ledge stretching their wings and flapping, with both adults perched nearby (1 on the ledge between 2 eyases, the other on the corner parapet near nestbox).
10:30-11:15 AM, adults made occasional circles over 101 Hudson and PATH building. At 11:20 AM an adult flew N from corner parapet near nestbox and launched attack on pigeon. Both birds disappeared over a building. Adult re-appeared a minute, flying leisurely SE over to PATH building, but did not appear to be carrying prey, so no evidence of a kill from this attack.
11:15-11:45 AM, observed 1 eyas perched on the ledge next to nestbox. Eyas defecated once and did some wing and tail stretching but otherwise remained in place.
These observations are evidence of the young getting very ready to fledge. Just two days later, on Tuesday, June 30, one of the young did take flight. For all the reasons that flight is precarious for young birds, and primarily inexperience, he collided with a building just a block away, and was found dead. Yesterday, July 1, a second bird took its first flight from the rooftop, faring a little better but did end up on the ground. Fortunately, the bird was picked up and one of the engineers at Mack-Cali transported it to our staff, who got it to The Raptor Trust last night. We'll provide updates when we know this bird's condition, but we do hope to get him back to his parents as soon as possible.
We suspect the remaining eyas is the female of the brood, mainly because females tend to fledge 3-7 days after males. When we can confirm who's who, we'll report it here. We certainly hope to have better reports soon.

Peregrines in urban areas do face many hazards, but they are just different hazards than those in more remote situations. One of the benefits to city living is a lack of predators on the young birds. One of the trade-offs, though, is the young birds have to learn quickly how to negotiate the man-made cliff environment. We'll keep our fingers crossed. We thank all who are watching out for these birds.

Nestbox News

I am addicted to watching the falcons. I watched from egg laying to hatching and now they are flying. When the site went down I e-mailed them and they were so good to respond and when it was back up they e-mailed me again!

Two of the falcons flew by my window an hour ago - one of the parents and a fledgling. The younger guy was squawking non-stop - really cool!

The still image page still shows the inside. I guess they think as they start to molt and get around more the outside is where the action will be. If you look at the current still you can see adult feathers just starting to show on the nearest one.

I think it's too early to shift cams also, but they're the experts.

And Mom is perched above the box, looking like she'd like to take someone's head off. I hope they tighten in on the next box - I can't see what is going on inside any more.

they're back! freshly-banded and looking none-too-pleased about it.

there's still some camera-fiddling going on.

NO BIRDS!!!!

The Nestbox news says banding was planned for today, but earlier. Is this bad?

there seems to be a runty one who's always in the back of the line at feeding time.

I'm a little worried about him/her.

The third chick is now hatched! They're all lying in a wiggling bundle of fuzz while Mom steps out.

And returns with dinner- a grey blob. She's tearing whatever it is apart (it has feathers) and feeding all three.

Click on the picture to get Quicktime menu - click on view then double size or whatever,

Depends. Check the shoutbox.

to see this full-screen on a PC, right-click and select "zoom."

does anyone know how to enable this feature on a Mac?

Mom just left for a bit - you can see the two little fuzzballs kind of flopping around. Awesome!

Lunch time. Looked like small songbird

I see 2 chicks and one egg also.

She is such a good mommy

Update: 2 chicks, one egg. Can't see a second egg.

Quote:

YAY!...now how do I convince my IT director that the "streaming video" on my work PC is not Youtube music videos...oy' did I get a taking to last year and when I told them it was the falcon webcam they gave me one of these .

Well, one chick has hatched. Two more eggs next to the chick that may hatch at any time.
There is one egg or large shell-part pushed against the back wall that is no longer being incubated.
So I guess there will be a maximum of three chicks this year. Let's hope for good weather.

update: That last egg is now back in the clutch, I think. Maybe we'll get four chicks after all.

I've got to remember to watch tomorrow. Mama might be hearing some movement inside the eggs.

I've been thinking its getting to be time.

Never mind - she moved again. Just saw eggs (two of them anyway) and she's sitting on the whole set, so I doubt there's a hatchling under there.

I think they may be hatching right now! The mother (?) was rocking back and forth while sitting on the eggs and then started picking steadily at something(s) beneath her. She scooted around and I thought I saw (very briefly) something other than an egg - very exciting!

Has anyone seen any signs of hatching yet?