Peregrine Falcons

Photographed: 2008 falcon young, Beaky, learning to fly on the downtown Westar Topeka rooftop.

We ask that falcon viewers keep in mind that these are wild creatures. Falcon chicks are commonly lost to falls in nature. Statistically, the mortality rate the first year is higher than 50%. We ask that viewers close their internet browser windows when not actively viewing the falcons to help with bandwidth costs.

Receive email updates as the 2013 falcon season progresses.

5-24-2013

Family portrait.

Feeding time.

5-22-2013

The four young chicks will be banded at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 27.

5-15-2013

Four chicks await feeding time.

5-10-2013

Falcon chick #4 hatches at 5:38 a.m..

5-8-2013

Mom feeds three young falcons. Kind of hard to see, but yes, there are three.

5-7-2013

Three young hatch. First at 3:33 p.m.. Second at 5:02 p.m.. Third at 5:21 p.m.

4-5-2013

The fourth egg arrived sometime early morning.

4-2-2013

The third egg arrived at 8:50 p.m..

3-31-2013

The second egg arrived at 12:50 p.m..

3-29-2013

Egg number one arrived at 3:10 a.m.. Peregrines have a clutch size of three to four eggs.

3-28-2013

We have confirmed that our falcon couple is Nemaha (female) and Boreas (male), the same falcon couple as the previous two years.

2013 Falcon Nest Box Modifications

After several years of successful fledglings, we experienced some unfortunate troubles the past couple years. We did research and made changes to better equip and protect the young birds as they prepare to take their first flights.

Modifications

• Increased the size of the box vertically to allow for a more recessed nesting area.


• Recessed nesting area creates a lip that birds have to climb over to gain access to the perch/external platform. This will hopefully ensure that birds have reached a necessary level of maturity before flying.


• Changes don't guarantee a successful flight, but we feel that this will give young birds the best opportunity for survival during this tricky first stage.

We expect the falcons to nest in early to mid-March. They have been spotted flying in the downtown Topeka area (late January).

January 2013: Green Team members install the modified falcon nest box above our downtown Topeka rooftop. In the background is the Kansas State Capitol building.

A view of the modified nest box from below.