Peregrine falcon chicks reared under bridge could take first flight in 10 days

Bridgette, Lancer and Windsor, the three peregrine falcon chicks that hatched on the Ambassador Bridge this spring, could take their first flights around June 10.

"They're moving around. They're flapping their wings," Dennis Patrick, the site coordinator for the Canadian Peregrine Foundation-Windsor Watch, said Tuesday. He noticed them flapping on Sunday.

Bridgette, the largest of the three and the only female, has almost lost all her downy feathers and is looking more like a sleek adult every day, Patrick reports. Usually the smaller males make the first flights but Bridgette is larger so all three may attempt to fly at the same time, Patrick said. Having a female as the oldest chick may help in survival since she showed her maternal instincts as she squawked and seemed protective of her younger brothers when the three were banded by the Ministry of Natural Resources last week. "It's just like a family in the old days that were blessed if they had an older daughter."

Nine out of 10 peregrine falcons die before they reach breeding age but with volunteers ready to help if the chicks are in imminent danger, the mortality rate drops to about 20 per cent. The Canadian Peregrine Foundation-Windsor Watch group has trained 26 volunteers who will be watching the nest from dusk to dawn soon. With three birds, "when we're trying to watch them that could be a handful."

There could have been a fourth chick. An unhatched egg was found on the ledge of the Ambassador bridge when the chicks were removed and banded last week.

The peregrine falcon watchers under the bridge will be looking to see if the parents, Freddie and Voltaire, switch gears. The parents will start to cut down on feedings so the chicks will lose that baby fat, Patrick said. Instead of mom feeding the chicks, the adults will start to leave food packages with the chicks so they can tear off a bite. Patrick said the adults will try to lure the youngsters off the nest when they are ready to fly. Once flying, the fledglings will have to learn to hunt. Then there will be talon to talon food hand-offs.

"It's going to be really, really, really exciting."

More: http://communities.canada.com/windsorstar/blogs/offthehill/archive/2010/06/01/peregrine-falcon-chicks-could-take-first-flight-in-10-days.aspx

..... it's quite the awesome sight