Week Three in Review
5/18: As of today, the chicks are now between 20-25 days old. In the past week we’ve seen more feather development with facial, wing, and tail feathers visible on all four chicks amongst the fluffy white down. We’ve also seen all four chicks leave and come back to the nest box periodically as they begin exploring their surroundings along the ledge.
What should you expect in the next week?
As they become increasingly mobile and better able to walk around, they are likely to wander off camera for several hours at a time, or even spend the night off camera. This is a normal part of peregrine falcon chick development and has taken place in past years with other broods. There are several other sheltering opportunities along the ledge, and viewers should not become overly concerned if they are not able to detect the chicks on camera as reliably as they used to. Further, the parents will continue to watch over the chicks and provide them with prey items.
Pending no inclement weather, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources biologists plan on visiting the Riverfront Plaza building on Friday, May 22nd to band the falcon chicks. This will be an incredibly exciting year for us, as we will be accompanied by the winners from our Falcon Banding Day Raffle. We want to extend our thanks to everyone who supported our wildlife conservation work by purchasing a ticket and our congratulations to the winners who have already been notified by DWR staff.
On the day of banding, three of the chicks will be between 24 and 29 days old. In addition to receiving their life-long leg bands, each chick will be weighed and measured and we will determine its sex. Banding is an incredibly important tool used to facilitate the identification of individuals throughout the remainder of their lives. This can yield information on where these young birds travel in the quest to establish their own individual breeding territories, as well as on their lifespan, productivity (number of eggs laid and chicks hatched) and relationship to other banded falcons with which they may interact. As a whole, banding allows biologists to better track the Virginia falcon population as it continues on its path to recovery.
On banding day, DWR biologists will also deploy the pen that has been used in previous years to prevent early fledge events. The camera will be turned off for up to a few hours while staff are banding the chicks and installing the pen. After this work has been completed, the chicks will be returned to the nest box and the camera will be turned back on. Be on the lookout for a follow-up post which will contain updates from banding day!
The female, 95/AK, stands in the nest box surrounded by her chicks.