Camera Back Online — Welcome to 2015
Happy 2015! After a bit of a hiatus due to scheduled building maintenance, both the nest box and camera were returned to their place on the ledge today, and the Richmond Falcon Cam is back online. While we were up on the ledge working, both male and female falcons ‘paid us a visit’ on a few occasions; while they were not especially excited or vocal, a few swipes at us on the wing confirmed that the birds are still defending this ledge as part of their downtown Richmond territory. We already knew, however, of the pair’s continued interest in this site: while we have not had the benefit of the camera for the past few months to track the pair’s comings and goings, a falcon aficionado in a nearby downtown office building did inform us that she had seen the pair at the ledge in late January. We are now only 4-6 weeks from expected egg-laying, to be preceded by courtship rituals, some of which we hope to witness at the nest box … should the birds select this location for nesting once again this year. Peregrines are known to alternate between nest sites within a broader territory in different years, and this pair has not been an exception. However, the nest at the Riverfront Plaza building has been the most productive and the most consistently used, with the birds returning to this location even in years when they attempted to nest elsewhere. We hope this proves to be the case again this year, as it will allow us to bring you once more a chronicle of the events that make up the nesting season of this iconic falcon pair.
An image of a female peregrine falcon by the nesting box taken in celebration of the camera being fixed.