DGIF biologists accessed the ledge yesterday to remove the pen. The pen was initially installed to keep the young birds from leaving the ledge before capable of flight. Following the successful fledging of the falcons - it was decided to leave the pen in place to allow the adults to become acclimated to it during the post-fledging period. Our hope is that allowing the adult falcons as much time as possible to become accustomed to the pen will reduce any stress that it's installation during the breeding season might cause.

Given the history of early fledging attempts with this pair, and the young male chick's fall from the ledge this summer - it is likely that we will continue to employ the pen to ensure the safety of the chicks.

The adult falcons are not being seen as regularly in the downtown Richmond area over the last several weeks. This is not unusual for this pair, which although non-migratory does seem to expand their area of operation during the non-breeding season.

Many thanks to the local observers who have provided us with updates as to the activities and whereabouts of our three falcon fledglings. All three of the fledglings were reported in the vicinity of the nest area as recently as Saturday August 29th. Observers report that all three of the birds are flying well and perching on various buildings in the downtown area. Both adults remain in the area as well - and are sometimes seen hunting at a well known Purple Martin migratory roost in the Shockoe Bottom area of Richmond. At the time of this post, we can see two falcons with the falcon cam - although we are not able to focus closely enough to determine if they are adults or juveniles. It should be noted that many of the birds' favored perches are not within the camera's field of view.

Young falcons may remain close to their nest area for 5-10 weeks following their fledging. During this period of time they will continue to follow the parents in flight and beg for food - calling loudly (they can be heard clearly from the ground - even over the traffic noise of downtown Richmond). The young will continue to perfect both their flying and hunting skills until they become self-sufficient and eventually disperse away from the nest area.

After a morning in which it appeared that all three chicks were beginning to master basic flight skills, Female AD/03 continued to have some challenges yesterday. She again made multiple attempts to alight on banks of glass windows on the building surrounding the nesting area. Predictably, she was unable to find purchase and would lose altitude - eventually finding a perch within about 4 stories of the ground. This process was repeated twice during the course of the afternoon. In each case DGIF staff and volunteers were able to locate and monitor the female until she flew off to a higher perch. The fact that she was able to recover in each case and eventually regain altitude gave us increased confidence in her abilities.

We were able to observe the adults utilizing food to help teach their young birds. The female adult would use a food tidbit to tease the young into the air - where she would lead them on an extensive flying lesson before dropping the food on a ledge. As we closed the day yesterday evening all five of the falcons were accounted for. This marks the end of our official "Falcon Fledge Watch". DGIF staff will continue to periodically check on the area and we continue to receive reports from observers with "high-rise" vantage points in the area. In fact an observer reported that as of 8:30am this morning all five falcons were in view.

Our thanks to the many building managers for allowing us access and of course to our volunteers for dedicating many hours in the Richmond heat.

Updates will be posted to the blog as we receive any reports of significant events.

One of the juvenile females spent the evening perched on a lamppost on the Federal Reserve property after attempting (and failing) to perch on windows at the reserve. She was uninjured and in a secure location. This morning, shortly before sunrise, this female finally took flight. She looked good and was able to gain altitude, perching on a 10 story building adjacent to the Reserve. From there she continued flying and gaining altitude, eventually joining her siblings and parents atop the Riverfront Plaza where they shared in a morning meal.

All three of the chicks continue to fly well and are being attended to by the parents.

Following the first successful flight of the young male, the two juvenile females were somewhat more cautious. One of the females slowly scaled the roof line using a strand of holiday lights (the lights are unplugged) and finally reached the apex of the roof. The other perched on the box that houses the camera equipment. Both females practiced getting the wind under their wings for some time before finally taking flight. Both of the two females flew strongly and were able to gain altitude.

One of the females did quite a bit of flying - eventually attempting to "land" on a window at the Federal Reserve building. She was unable to gain any purchase and was able to fly back to the Riverfront Plaza West Tower. A short time later she attempted the same maneuver again. This time she was unable to regain lift and fluttered to the ground. DGIF personnel were able to enter the Federal Reserve property with an escort from Federal Reserve Police. The female was located - unhurt- perched on a small single story structure on the grounds. Although she was able to move to a slightly higher perch she made no concerted effort to regain the air. She was monitored at this location for some hours. As the site is extremely secure it was determined that the best course of action was to let her rest and try again tomorrow. Our past experience has shown that birds which have similar experiences often do well after an evening of rest. We will closely monitor the bird on Wednesday.

The other two fledglings were not seen for some time during the afternoon - although the adults made regular flights to favorite perches. Not until late in the afternoon was the juvenile male seen again - chasing the adult male and begging loudly. The adult male soon flew off to hunt. During his absence the second juvenile female was resighted and she joined her brother atop the Federal Reserve.

When the adult male returned the mother and juvenile male met him in the air - where he dropped his prey to them. It was caught (we're unsure by who) and the three flew to the roof of the Riverfront Plaza West Tower (nest building). They were joined by the juvenile female who had been on top of the Federal Reserve. In all, the day was largely successful. The difficulty encountered by the juvenile female demonstrates the potential hazards encountered by these birds fledging in highly urbanized areas. We are hopeful that she will be able to take flight on her own tomorrow morning. Should intervention be warranted DGIF staff will be on hand.

The male has fledged! He took strong flight gaining altitude before landing atop the Riverfront Plaza west tower to rest and enjoy a new perspective. Both of the females have left the pen. 02/AD is perched on the ledge and 03/AD is perched atop the camera housing. We will post more updates later today.

Our three young falcons have grown quickly. Only a few scattered tufts of down remain and their juvenile plumage is almost fully grown in. Peregrine falcons typically fledge between 40-45 days after hatching.

The door-opener apparatus will be installed on the pen door on Tuesday morning, August 18th. This will mark 47 to 48 days since hatching for these falcons. The extra time ensures full feather development, and allows these birds to strengthen their flight muscles before attempting their first flights.

The “apparatus” is comprised of a weight, bungee cords, and a plastic bottle of ice attached to the pen door. As the ice melts it releases the weight and the door is slowly pulled open by the bungee cords. Depending on the temperature on the release date, the door should open about 2-4 hours after the trigger is attached. We have used this method successfully for three years. Though the adults become aggressive when we attach the device, they quickly calm down after we leave. Past releases have gone very smoothly, with the chicks typically walking from the pen or flying to the ledge, surveying their surroundings for a few minutes or hours, and then taking successful first flights.

DGIF personnel and skilled volunteers will be stationed in the area surrounding the nest building. This will allow us to track the young birds’ first efforts and ensure that they are capable of sustained, controlled flight. This monitoring effort will continue until we are confident in the flight abilities of the fledglings. Should one of the fledglings encounter difficulty and end up on the ground, DGIF staff will recover the fledgling and either return it to the ledge or ensure prompt treatment and transportation to a licensed rehabilitation facility if necessary.

When DGIF biologists were on the ledge installing the pen for the falcon chicks, they discovered the remains of the fourth egg from this clutch wedged under the ramp. The eggshell was cracked and its contents dried out. The remnants of this egg were sent for toxicology testing along with the blood samples from the chicks collected during the banding.

With the installation of the pen camera operators have a bit of a quandary. It is not possible to simultaneously provide a view of both the nest box where the chicks spend much of their time or the feeding area where the adults bring food and pass it through to the chicks. Providing a good view of one area means a poor (or non-existent) view of the other.

Unfortunately camera operators are simply not able to monitor the cam continually (as much as we like watching falcons). In an attempt to provide the best possible coverage of activity at the nest we are utilizing some of the camera's built-in features. The camera had been programmed so that when motion in detected in a section of the camera view ("a trigger" area) the camera can be instructed to move to a preset position. As these cameras were not designed with the flapping of wings in mind - calibrating the detection can be somewhat tricky. A number of things (including rapidly changing light levels) can "fool" the camera temporarily. There are a limited number of triggers and positions that can be programmed. We have selected those that provide the best overall chance of seeing what's happening. When a camera operator is logged in the view can be set manually.

While this solution does not work perfectly, it does allow for our viewers to see more of the action at the nest then otherwise possible.

On the afternoon of Fri, July 31st, a DGIF biologist responded to a call of a grounded osprey chick in downtown Richmond. The caller reported having shooed the bird from the Manchester Bridge, where cars were swerving to avoid hitting it, onto the adjacent grassy lawn of the Federal Reserve Building. The Manchester Bridge sits between the Riverfront Plaza, where Richmond's peregrine falcon pair have nested this year, and the Federal Reserve Building. Upon arrival at the scene, the biologist was surprised to see that the ‘osprey’ chick was none other than the banded male peregrine falcon chick. This chick was known to have been spending time on the parapet of the ledge of the Riverfront Plaza and had evidently fallen or been swept off the ledge by a gust of wind. Luckily, the bird was unharmed and was returned to the Riverfront Plaza ledge shortly thereafter.

Although DGIF biologists had decided to leave these three falcons to fledge naturally this year – the recent mishap has caused us to reevaluate our approach. In the past we have utilized a pen to prevent premature fledging. Young falcons leaving the nest before they are fully ready to fly is a serious hazard – one that was experienced before by this pair (see http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/falconcam2008/2007-archive.asp). To ensure that these three chicks are well developed and capable of full flight when they fledge, we have decided to use the pen.

On the morning of August 1st, two DGIF biologists accessed the ledge and found the male chick again perched on the parapet. All three chicks were removed from the ledge while the pen was installed; the chicks were then placed in the pen under the watchful eyes of the adults. The entire process took less than two hours.

The pen allows ample room for the young to exercise their wings (indeed the pen is larger then many peregrine falcon scrapes). The adults are able to feed the young through the pen wires. At this stage the chicks do not need brooding, and are able to feed themselves from prey brought by the adults. A sunshade has been added to the roof of the pen to provide shelter from the sun. When the chicks have fully developed and are capable of flight, a remote door-opening mechanism will be installed on the pen. The door will then slowly open, allowing the chicks to fledge without human intrusion.

A local falcon watcher with a vantage point from a nearby office building has made a positive sighting of our wandering chick. The young male was seen perched atop the parapet (raised edge of the ledge) at the farthest point possible from the nest box.

This relatively precarious position underscores our decision not to access the ledge in search of the "missing" chick. Any disturbance might have startled the young bird into jumping, resulting in an unfortunate conclusion. It is somewhat surprising to find the young male up on the edge at this age but there are some structures present (lights, fixtures etc.) that might have given him a leg up, so to speak.

As we suspected the young bird has simply taken advantage of the spacious ledge to explore its surroundings. The observer noted at least one of the parents attending to the young male. Given the fact that his sisters are so much larger then he - remaining on his own might offer some relief in competing for food. Should he choose to, he'll be able to make his way back to the nest box.

Some have expressed concern that the male chick (Band 19/AB) has not been seen on the camera since late Monday. As the chicks have become more mobile the full ledge has become available to them. The picture below should give an idea as to what we can and can't see on the camera.

Only about 30 feet of the ledge are visible on the Falcon Cam. The remaining ledge comprises approximately 110 feet and is fully accessible to the chicks. The adults are also able to access the full ledge and will feed the chicks regardless of where they are.

Although the camera dome was thoroughly cleaned during yesterday's work on the ledge, we can already see new webs spun across the dome. This area provides excellent habitat for the spiders and apparently the camera dome is an especially attractive place to spin a web.

The camera setting have been changed to to prevent the autofocus from focusing on the webs - but unfortunately the webs will still cause problems with viewing, especially in the morning hours when sunlight glares through them. We will not likely have an opportunity to clean the dome again this season - as there are no plans to access the ledge.

The banding of the peregrine chicks and installation of safety lines at Riverfront Plaza were completed today. The new fall protection system will ensure that we can access the ledge as needed in the future. Contractors performing the work on the ledge were accompanied at all times by biologists to ensure the safety of both the workers and the birds. Both falcon parents were defensive of the ledge although they often took breaks, perching and keeping a close eye on all personnel involved.











All three chicks appeared well-fed and generally healthy. No external parasites were noted. The chicks were weighed and measured. The measurements revealed that we have two females and a male this year. The male's feather development indicates that he is the eldest of the three.

The chicks were banded with both a US Fish & Wildlife Service anodized green aluminum band and green and black bands with larger characters that can be more easily read in the field. A small blood sample was also taken from each chick in order to test for lead content. This testing is being prompted by the high levels of lead detected in egg materials collected from failed nesting attempts earlier this year.

Vital Statistics
Male USFWS Band #1126-11828 - Aux. Band 19/AB - Weight:627 grams
Female USFWS Band #1807-65007 - Aux. Band 02/AD - Weight: 848 grams
Female USFWS Band #1807-65008 - Aux. Band 03/AD - Weight: 883grams

The necessary equipment for installation of the safety system on the nesting ledge will not be in place in time for tomorrow's scheduled work.

The safety system is now scheduled to be installed on Monday morning - after which the banding will take place as planned.

Scheduling banding this year has been a bit tricky as some other issues needed to be resolved before we could move forward. OSHA regulations deemed the fall-arrest system inadequate on Riverfront Plaza. This is the system that assures the safety of any personnel who must access the ledge.

This has created somewhat of a catch-22. The necessary work could not be performed with the falcons on the nest, and we can’t access the ledge (and the falcons) because the work hasn’t been performed.

DGIF staff have been in discussions with the building management and come to a solution. On Friday July 24th beginning at about 9:30 a.m., contractors will install an updated fall-arrest system on only the portion of ledge shared with the falcons (as opposed to the entire perimeter of the building). All work on the ledge will be supervised by DGIF biologists to ensure the safety of the falcons (and the contractors!). This procedure was evaluated carefully by DGIF Nongame biologists to ensure that any disturbance would be tolerated by the birds. Part of the desire to have this safety system installed is to ensure that should an urgent situation arise with the falcons, DGIF personnel will be able to access the ledge as necessary.

The birds will be given a chance to settle down following Friday’s scheduled work and biologists will return on Monday July 27th to band the three eyases. At this time blood samples will also be taken to evaluate the chick’s potential lead exposure. The unhatched egg will be collected for further testing. The camera will not be active for either the safety system installation or the banding. Photos and information from the banding will be posted to the blog.

Those who have followed the pair since 2006 when they first nested at Riverfront Plaza, are very familiar with our Richmond falcon banding routine. In past years, this has included transferring and “hacking” some of the Richmond chicks to augment the Appalachian population, and “penning” the remaining Richmond chicks to enhance their chances of survival (Please see the 2007 blog link http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/falconcam2008/2007-archive.asp for details on these topics). Falcon fans also are aware that our pair did not successfully nest in 2008, and that this year they suffered two nest failures before producing three chicks from four eggs.

Due to the nest failures of the last two years, the lateness of this year’s brood and to reinforce the pair’s attachment to the Riverfront Plaza nest site, we have decided to leave all the chicks at the nestbox site to fledge naturally this year. We are hopeful that the spaciousness of the ledge, the relative abundance of shade and protected nature of this site will result in their successful fledging in mid-August.

Richmond Falcon Cam followers may recall that remnants of two failed nesting attempts by the falcon pair were collected earlier this year. These included one intact egg and some eggshell fragments (see May 15 and May 22 blog entries). These materials were sent for tests to investigate potential exposure to contaminants in the environment, including heavy metals, pesticides and flame retardants.

Some of these results have just been reported. Both the egg and the eggshell were found to contain very high concentrations of lead. The primary pathway for lead deposition into the eggs is through the female, so these findings suggest that the female has suffered exposure to lead. Interestingly, eggshell fragments recovered from this pair’s failed 2008 nesting attempt came back negative for lead. Therefore, it is likely that the female's exposure to lead is recent. We hope to continue our investigations through recovery and testing of the unhatched egg, possible blood tests of the chicks, and consideration of potential sources of lead exposure in the greater Richmond area.

Additional results for other potential contaminants will be posted when received.

Our three eyases have have grown quickly! All three are well fed and moving around the nestbox. They aren't coordinated enough yet to walk on their feet...you'll note that they waddle on their tarsus. All three are feeding well...following a feeding you'll note a swollen pouch below the chick's neck. This is a storage organ called a crop. It is a essentially an enlarged portion of the esophagus that stores food prior to digestion. It allows the birds to quickly consume a large quantity of food and digest it someplace safe and away from potential predators or competitors.

You can see the emergence of pin feathers along the edge of the chicks' wings. These will develop into the flight feathers that these birds will eventually use to take their first flight

The 4th egg remains unhatched, at this point there is no chance that it will hatch. The egg remains in the nest and has now been rolled off to the corner.

We have been closely monitoring the 4th egg, hoping to see some indication of a pip. Today marks the 37th day for this egg. While peregrine falcon eggs generally hatch at between 33-35 days of incubation, 37 days is not unknown. We are drawing towards the end of the window where we can reasonably hope that this egg remains viable.

The three chicks that have hatched are doing quite well - and being fed often by the adults. In the short time since they've hatched the chicks have grown noticeably.

At approximately 3:20 this afternoon the 3rd chick hatched. What appeared to be a pip was noted this morning but it was difficult to confirm, as the attentive parents kept the egg well hidden today.

The two chicks that hatched yesterday appear quite vigorous and have been fed several times. Impressively, the youngest chick- not to be outdone by its older siblings - lifted its head and got in on a 4:45pm feeding. This is less then 1 1/2 hours after hatching! By all indications these three chicks are healthy and doing well.

Now we'll keep our eyes open for the 4th egg to hatch.

It certainly has been busy at the Richmond nest box today! The second chick hatched at about.... The first chick has dried out and its fluffy white natal down is obvious now. The second chick has successully hatched (although the adult rolled it out of sight before it completely escaped the remnant of its egg). We'll keep watching for pips on egg 3& 4

The first of the Richmond peregrine falcon chicks has hatched. At 2:30pm the young falcon chick (also called an eyas) finally emerged! We'll continue to monitor the progress of the other three eggs.

This morning a small pip (or hole) was seen on one of the eggs at 8:25 am. Captured still images also hinted at a small hole on a second egg but it was hard to immediately confirm this.

At this time (1:21pm) we can clearly see that two eggs have pipped. Towards the end of the video you can briefly see one of the chick's bills protruding through the hole. Hatching is physically demanding for these chicks and it may be some time before they completely free themselves from their eggs.

We are aware of the current camera outage and are coordinating with our project partners to resolve the issue. While the public feed is down we are still able to directly monitor the camera and will be sure make timely posts of any significant happenings at the nest.

Currently the adults continue to closely monitor the eggs and there is no indication of any pips. The female has appeared somewhat restless, frequently repositioning the eggs.

At 4:15 the male took over duty in the scrape.

We expect the eggs to begin hatching sometime within the next few days. Peregrine falcons typically incubate their eggs for 33-35 days. Incubation usually begins with the 2nd to last egg laid (May 29th this year) - but this year the start of incubation was a bit of an on again/off again affair, so pinpointing exactly when incubation began was a bit tricky. Regardless, we should see the first egg hatch soon.

The interior of the eggshell is lined with membranes that together form what is called the chorioallantois. The many blood vessels of the chorioallantois pass oxygen through the outer shell and to the developing embryo (while expelling carbon dioxide). Metabolic wastes are also transported to this membrane. Since being laid the egg has been slowly but steadily losing water through the pores of the shell, as a result the egg actually weighs less now then when it was laid. The shell is somewhat thinner now as some of the calcium in the eggshell has been absorbed by the embryo and used to help build its developing bones.

At this point the embryo's development is largely complete. The chick will reposition itself inside the egg bringing its bill close to the air space that occupies the end of the egg. The embryo is absorbing what remains of the yolk into its abdomen and will begin to absorb and remaining fluid in the egg as well.

The embryo pierces the air space with its bill and breathes with its lungs for the first time. Now the real work of hatching begins. The hatchling will use two specialized structures in this demanding process: the egg tooth a small, sharp structure on the upper beak of the young bird(this will fall off shortly after hatching) and the complexus muscle (also called the pipping muscle). This muscle is greatly enlarged prior to hatching and is used to brace the head as the egg tooth is rasped repeatedly across the shell. Eventually the hatchling breaks through or pips and a small hole will be seen at the end of egg. The hatchling will rotate within its shell, continuing to score the shell until it is has created an opening large enough to emerge through. The chick will rest frequently during this demanding process. The entire process can take days.

By delaying initial incubation the time between hatching of each egg has been reduced. All of the eggs in a clutch typically hatch within 24-48 hours of each other. This is important as it reduces the disadvantage the youngest chick faces in competition with its siblings

The parents can hear and feel the activity inside the egg and may respond to it - especially at the later stages of the process. Once the hatchling has begun to breathe with its lungs it can also begin to make soft calls which the parents can hear and may become louder as hatching progresses. We have already noted the adults peering closely at the eggs over the last day or so.

The falcons at Riverfront Plaza in Richmond continue to surprise. On Sunday May 31st, at about 3:30 pm a fourth egg was noted by camera viewers. This should be the last egg of the clutch as nests with more then four eggs are unusual.


Spiders have again begun to weave webs across the protective dome that houses the camera. At times the strong morning sunlight glares strongly off these webs, causing the camera's auto-focus to focus on the webs as opposed to the nest. Adjustments have been made to the camera which will hopefully minimize this problem


Peregrine falcons incubate for 33-35 days. Pinpointing exactly when incubation began for this clutch is somewhat tricky, as even after the third egg was laid incubation during the day was not consistent, possibly due to warmer temperatures for this relatively late nesting attempt. We can state that the the eggs will be expected to hatch at the very end of June or the beginning of July.

This morning Falcon Cam viewers were intrigued by glimpses of what appeared to be a third egg. After watching throughout the day we have finally been able to get a clear view of the third egg.

Whether or not this will be the final egg of the clutch remains to be seen. Although a typical clutch contains four eggs, this pair did lose an egg only a few days before nesting here on May 24th. Once the second egg was laid on May 27th we saw incubation begin, especially during the cooler evening and early morning hours.

Both the male and female will incubate the eggs, although the female generally assumes the majority of this duty. The birds develop brood patches, featherless areas on their breast that become highly vascularized, carrying the parent's warm blood close to surface of their skin. This allows the adults to more efficiently transfer body heat to the eggs. The female's brood patch will be more developed then the male's. Incubation will not be constant as the parents need only maintain the eggs at an optimum temperature. With the relatively warm weather (Today = high 85 deg - low 62 deg) this is less of a challenge for this late renest.

Although the female spent much of the morning hours incubating, she has since spent significant time off of the eggs thisafternoon. At the time of this entry (5:40pm) she is again incubating. This makes it more difficult to guess exactly how many eggs will eventually make up this clutch. We'll simply have to wait.

As the last light faded from the Richmond sky last night (May 26th), the female seemed as if she might be getting ready to lay the second egg of this clutch. Unfortunately, even with the night vision mode engaged we were not able to discern what was happening in the nest.

This morning found a second egg. The female was incubating this morning, indicating that we can probably expect one more egg to fill out this clutch.

Sometime before 5pm on Sunday, May 24th the Richmond Falcons laid an egg in the nest box on the Riverfront Plaza West Tower. This followed a period of scraping (creating a shallow depression in the nest substrate) and courtship/mating at the nest box that began on Friday.

More eggs are likelyforthcoming. A typical brood for falcons in our area consist of four eggs (although more occasionally occur). As the female had recently laid one egg (which fell and broke) on the Bank of America building, we'll have to see how many eggs ultimately make up this clutch. Both the male and female continue to be seen at the nest box. The egg is not yet being incubated. Peregrine falcons generally begin incubation with the second to last egg of a clutch (yet another indication that more eggs are on the way).

Stay tuned!

From 2003-2005, the Richmond falcons nested (successfully, with a lot of help from DGIF in moving chicks to the roof to make them safe) on the 17th floor balcony of the BB&T building. Because that balcony is not a safe nesting site, we blocked access to the nest box after the birds moved successfully to nest at Riverfront Plaza in 2006 and 2007. During the non-breeding season, we also placed some bricks and cinder blocks on that balcony to further discourage the falcons from nesting there.

Biologists with the DGIF Nongame Wildlife Program continue to monitor the Richmond peregrine falcons. We have seen the birds copulating several times recently, indicating that they are preparing to nest. Given the late date, we presume that the pair already has suffered a nest failure this spring.

For the last couple of weeks our biologists have spent considerable time tracking the falcons in downtown Richmond. The pair has focused on the southeast balcony ledge on the 17th floor of the BB&T building; the same balcony used as a nest site by this pair in years past (2003-05). Difficulties associated with this site for both the falcons and biologists led us to block access to the BB&T nestbox after the pair moved to Riverfront Plaza in 2006 (see March 21st blog, below). The female briefly visited the ledge of the Riverfront Plaza nestbox on May 14th, but the gravel in that box shows no sign of disturbance. Both adults have been spending significant amounts of time on their favorite perches in their “downtown” territory.

On Friday, May 15th, DGIF Nongame biologists surveyed all of the BB&T building 17th floor balconies for eggs or prey carcasses, and both falcons aggressively defended the windows at the 17th floor balcony nestbox. An abandoned falcon egg was found on the balcony on the opposite (NW) corner of the 17th floor, but the falcons did not defend any windows other than those at the nestbox. It is surmised that the egg is all that remains from a spring 2009 nest failure. The egg was collected and will be submitted for laboratory testing.

From the birds’ behavior over the last couple of weeks, we believe they are preparing to renest, likely in the downtown area. Given this situation, we decided to accommodate them to the extent possible, rather than continuing to discourage them from nesting on the BB&T balcony. The bricks and cinder blocks placed on the BB&T balcony to discourage nesting were removed, and the nestbox covers will be removed as well, as soon as practicable and without further stressing the adult birds.

As an interesting and perhaps prophetic note, in 2007 this pair was very defensive of the BB&T balcony during their renest courtship right up through May 14th; then on the 15th the female laid the first egg of her renest clutch in the nestbox at Riverfront Plaza! We will simply have to wait and watch.

Update on 2 Richmond Falcon “babies”
A US Fish & Wildlife Service biologist banding chicks at the peregrine falcon nest on the Legg Mason Building in Baltimore discovered that the nesting pair was comprised of two new birds. The male of this new pair was produced by the downtown Richmond pair in 2003, at their original nest site on the BB&T building.

Another Richmond offspring, hatched at Riverfront Plaza in 2006 and then moved to Shenandoah National Park where she was hacked on Hawksbill Mountain, was just discovered nesting in the understructure of a concrete bridge that carries PA Route 472 across the Susquehanna River, between Columbia and Wrightsville in Lancaster County, PA.
These are great examples of the importance of banding these chicks. Not only do we learn more about these birds’ survival and dispersal, but such events underscore the contribution of our Richmond peregrines to falcon restoration in the Appalachians and along the Atlantic coast.

Since the high risk nest site on the BBT building was blocked by DGIF Nongame biologists in March, the whereabouts of the Richmond falcon pair has been in question. The birds continued to be seen on several of their favored perches. For some time only a single bird was being seen at one time making us wonder if the birds hadn't in fact found an alternate nest site. A number of possible sites have been evaluated by DGIF Nongame biologists but no nest site was confirmed.


Today both birds were seen for some time spending much of the afternoon perched on the BBT building across from the nestbox at Riverfront Plaza. Given the length of time the pair were both present it is unlikely that the pair currently have an active nest. We will continue to monitor the pair and attempt to identify any potential nest sites.

The 2009 breeding season begins with some uncertainty regarding where the downtown Richmond falcons intend to nest. DGIF and our partners have been monitoring the falcons’ activities via the Richmond Falcon Cam. So far the birds have paid little attention to the nest box on the West Tower at Riverfront Plaza, and have instead focused on their old nest site at the BB&T building. On March 20th, a DGIF biologist accessed the BB&T balcony ledge to determine whether any eggs had been laid, and found that none had been. He then used bricks and cinderblocks to minimize nesting opportunities at that site. The decision to discourage the falcons from nesting on the BB&T ledge was based on the challenges and risks posed by that site.

After the Richmond falcons were first documented as a pair in 2002, they nested on the BB&T building in 2003 through 2005. They moved to an existing nest box on the nearby West Tower of the Riverfront Plaza in 2006, and nested there again in 2007 and 2008. Following the pair’s move to Riverfront Plaza, DGIF personnel covered the nest platform on the BB&T building ledge with a slanted board, to discourage the birds from nesting there again. The narrow ledge provides little room for the chicks to move about and exercise as they grow, increasing likelihood of their jumping or falling from the ledge before they can fly, as was experienced in 2003. "Penning" and soft release of the chicks from the BB&T site, as was accomplished in 2004 and 2005, requires construction of a pen on the roof of the building, and stressful (for the chicks and parents) relocation of the chicks to the rooftop during banding. Furthermore, nest and camera management by biologists at that site is difficult and unsafe because of the small space on which the nesting platform is built. The site is only accessible through a window, which further exposes biologists to attack by the adult birds.

It is our hope that the pair will refocus its attention on the Riverfront Plaza site, and that we may continue to broadcast their breeding activities via the Richmond Falcon Cam. We will continue to monitor the pair and to provide updates as events unfold.


UPDATE AT THE BREAKS!

On an upbeat note, today we received confirmation of a pair of peregrines at Breaks Interstate Park, on the Kentucky-Virginia border near Haysi, VA. In partnership with the Park staff, we have conducted hacks of Virginia-produced juvenile falcons at the Park during the last two summers (including 2 chicks of the Richmond pair in 2007), in hopes of establishing a resident pair. We will provide updates on the “Breaks” pair as the season progresses.

Following the failure of the 2008 falcon brood, DGIF biologists continued to monitor the nest site through the Falcon Cam in the hopes of documenting a renesting attempt by the pair. Although the falcons were occasionally seen on camera, they did not renest at the site. Throughout the summer and fall the falcons continued to be seen sporadically. This pair does not seem to be migratory, although they may wander over a much larger area during the non-breeding season.

The Falcon Cam has been broadcasting intermittently over the past several months as we have attempted to troubleshoot network and equipment issues. On Thursday, November 20th DGIF staff were able to restore full functionality to the camera. The decision has been made to leave the feed active at this time as a service for Falcon Cam watchers who enjoy viewing the nest site outside of the falcons’ breeding season. Please note, however, that this blog WILL NOT be regularly updated until we are closer to the breeding season. In addition, any network outages/equipment issues that may affect the Falcon Cam will be dealt with as staff schedules permit.

NEWS from 2008

DGIF biologists were able to recover only a few egg shell fragments following the falcons’ removal of their final egg from the nest site, which marked the failure of their 2008 brood. These fragments were submitted to the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study lab at the University of Georgia for testing. As there were no tissues contained within these fragments, the testing was limited to heavy metal screening. Iron, Manganese, Zinc and Copper were all detected at levels well within normal limits. No other metals were detected by the screening. At this time the factors that contributed to the nest failure are still unknown.

At the time of the nest failure, the gravel present in the nest box had been used by the falcons as a scrape for multiple successful broods with no apparent ill effect. Although there were no indications that any contaminant was present, we replaced the gravel with fresh gravel as a precautionary measure

We are aware of the camera outage and a working to trace its source.

Although both birds were somewhat defensive of the site when DGIF biologists accessed the ledge to clean and modify the nest box, they have not been seen on camera recently. We will hopefully resolve the camera issue soon and continue to monitor the site.

Since the last update both of the remaining eggs have been lost. By about 5:30pm yesterday the 3rd egg had been removed from the nest by the falcons. The fourth remained and appeared to have pipped. The female settled down to incubate the egg overnight and we were hopeful that the remaining egg might still be viable.

As of about 6:15 am this morning the fourth egg had also been removed. We are unsure what may have led to the failure of this clutch. There are many plausible causes and we simply don't have enough information at this point to speculate. This morning eggshell fragments and a sample of the gravel from the scrape were retrieved for lab analysis.

We will continue to monitor and evaluate the nest site. There is still the possibility that the falcons will have second brood. We will update you as information becomes available.

We are aware of the unfortunate happening at the nest in Richmond. At this point it appears that we lost two of our young birds. One was noted dead this morning and a second egg appeared to be hatching. This second egg was then carried off by the female.

As of this posting it appears that a third egg is in the process of hatching.

At this point we are unsure of what exactly has happened. We do not wish to engage in speculation, any number of scenarios are possible. We are consulting with our project partners and will post further updates as soon as we are able.

At least one of the eggs has hatched and second has pipped. The 1st egg hatched at about 6:30pm, and a good sized hole was seen in a second egg at 8:05pm. Pipping is the process by which the chick begins to pecks a hole in the egg. By tomorrow morning we should have at least two falcon chicks, called eyases. The female is keeping both the new hatcling and the remianing eggs well protected. Note the empty eggshell in this photo!

We continue to watch and wait for the first hatching. The female seems to be a bit fidgety over the last day or so, checking and rearranging the eggs frequently. Our initial estimate of April 21st for a hatch date was obviously a bit early. Incubation of this clutch began later in the hatching cycle, resulting in a later hatch date.

We are monitoring the camera regularly and will post any updates as quickly as possible

Those who liked to peek in on the falcons at night were long able to take advantage of the buildings lighting to keep an eye on the birds. A problem with the lighting has darkened the ledge at night. We can see a flickering bulb on camera, but at this critical stage we are unable to do any maintenance on the ledge.

We have a further difficulty in the early morning when strong light from the rising sun illuminates every smudge and scratch in the camera dome, confusing the autofocus feature of the camera which confuses this glare with a close object. A camera operator is not always available to correct this issue but we are trying to ensure that we refocus the camera as quickly as possible.

We are drawing close to hatching for our eggs! Falcon incubation averages about 33 days. Calculating the date of the first hatching can be tricky however as the birds don't really start to incubate in earnest until the second egg is laid (even later if the weather is quite warm). The purpose of this is to minimize the size difference between siblings, preventing the youngest from being at too great a competitive disadvantage.

The falcon egg prognosticator calculates that the 1st egg will hatch on April 21st or 22nd, this is approximately 35 days from the date the egg was laid.

Required electrical work at the site resulted tin damage to piece of the falcon cam's network infrastructure. This has been replaced and the cam is fully operational

We are aware of the outage and are working to correct it. Hopefully the cam will be back online soon.

The Richmond peregrine falcons have four eggs! In all likelihood we won't see any more eggs. although very rarely more then 4 will be laid. Finding room to incubate all four was a bit tricky!

Sometime in the afternoon of March 22nd the third egg was laid. We'll keep watching to see if a fourth egg is in the works.

Sometime between 11pm on March 19th and 7 am on the 20th the Richmond peregrine falcons laid their second egg. We'll keep watching to see how many eggs form this year's clutch

After much anticipation the Richmond Peregrine Falcons have their first egg as of about 5:10pm. The female spent most of the previous evening raising hopes that egg laying would be imminent.

More eggs are likely imminent as the pair continue to breed. You'll notice that the egg is not being continually incubated. This is not a cause for alarm. Incubation is often delayed until the last egg is laid. This may be a strategy to reduce the time between hatching for the eggs. Eggs are incubated, on average, for 33 days. Four eggs is a typical clutch, although 5 or even 6 occurs rarely.

For more 1st egg action be sure to check out the Norfolk Botanical Garden Eagle Cam - where the 1st egg of a replacement clutch was laid on Sunday.

Following some extreme weather in the Richmond area last night (high winds, heavy rains and lightning). The Falcon Cam has lost some of its functionality today. While the image is still being fed, many camera controls are unavailable. You may notice intermittent outages today as we attempt to restore camera function.

One of the falcons was seen at the box briefly this morning.

Enjoy this short clip of the female feeding and then flying in to the ledge for a close up

The young Richmond falcon that had been rehabbing with Tri-County rehabilitation (band 49-Z) has been released. Although the bird had recovered nicely it still seemed to favor its right wing.


She was placed with a Falconer, a technique that allowed her to self-regulate the amount of exercise she was capable of. In essence the bird was able to determine when it was ready for release. On Wednesday Feb 27th, She did just that, taking off for an exercise flight and not returning. Our thanks to Tri-county for a great job

The Richmond FalconCam is live for 2008! Both parents have been noted in the area lately with the female seen utilizing favorite perch on the BBT building. In Virginia, Peregrine Falcons typically lay eggs in March or April. Cam viewers may recall that last year's nesting attempt was fairly late, with the parents starting (and abandoning) a nest site at the James River Bridge prior to settling back into this site.