15 May 2021
At 20 days old, the Pitt peregrine chicks are actively walking all over the nest surface. The streaming camera cannot see the entire nest so you might be fooled into thinking that one or more chicks have “fallen” from the nest. Not at all. They are playing a game of Now You See Us, Now You Don’t.
A good example of this occurred yesterday, 14 May, at 12:38pm. Within one minute the streaming camera viewed four chicks, above, …
… then three chicks …
… then only two chicks.
To find out where they went, look at wider view on the snapshot camera at FALCONCAM–CL Snapshots.
Notice that neither camera shows the entire nest.
- The streaming camera cannot see the front right side near the green perch.
- The snapshot camera cannot see the back right corner and obscures chicks in deep shadow.
View images from both cameras to count 4 chicks. For instance at 12:38:50pm, two chicks are visible on the streaming camera in shadow at the back of the box.
Meanwhile 3 chicks are visible on the snapshot camera, one in deep shadow.
The red mark-up shows the location of chicks #3 and #4.
None of the chicks are missing. They are just very active.
Practice counting heads on the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh and the snapshot camera at FALCONCAM–CL Snapshots.
(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
The nest box seems pretty messy this year. More so than I remember from a few years back. It will be a big job on banding day!
Indeed! I was about to blog about that but opted for “Now You See Us, Now You Don’t”