Have You Watched our Falcon Cam Yet

What is a Falcon Cam you may ask? 

The World Bird Sanctuary, in partnership with Missouri Department of Conservation and Ameren Missouri, is pleased to be able to bring you a live video camera trained on a Peregrine Falcon nest box located at Ameren Missouri’s Portage des Sioux Energy Center.  This live video feed will allow you to watch a pair of Peregrine Falcons nest and hatch their chicks from the comfort of your living room.  The video feed is active from 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. each day.

One of the falcons early in the year inspecting the empty next box

The Falcon Cam has been up and running for the past three years.  In that time we have watched a Peregrine Falcon pair, which we named Coal and SiouxZee, lay 14 eggs and successfully fledge 12 youngsters.

This year, for whatever reason, SiouxZee did not return.  However, a new female has bonded with Coal and she is now sitting on 4 eggs, which we estimate will hatch around the 4^th or 5^th of May.

The female (on the right) watching the four eggs

 Watching this nest is somewhat like watching a soap opera.  There can be action, drama, danger, tenderness and yes, even comedy.

Click Here to watch this real life drama.  If you are lucky you may even see the male bring food to the female, or just change positions with her to give her a break.  When you go to the video feed, be sure to click on the “Ask Jeff” link to find out all the interesting details of the past history of this falcon nest.  You’ll find out what is involved in following a pair of Peregrine Falcons (the world’s fastest animal) from courtship to fledging the youngsters. 

Let me warn you—viewing the Falcon Cam can be addictive!

Submitted by Gay Schroer, World Bird Sanctuary Volunteer/Photographer

Hatching Little "Hooters"

I’m sure if you read the WBS blog or the WBS Facebook page you have seen the advertisements for our Owl Prowls.

This is the time of year when our owls’ wild brethren give a hoot.  Owls will defend territory or call out to a mate with their hoots.  Even the Barn Owls who don't technically hoot, have their own distinctive call.  However, I wouldn’t want as my mate someone who can’t remember me with the constant “who, who.”  All of this commotion leads to little hooters. 

 Staff member Leah Tyndall keeps an eye on our breeding pair by watch nest activity on "Barn Owl TV"

Now is the time of year when we start to see activity with our resident breeding pairs, too.  Recently, we went on an expedition to see how our barn owls have been doing.  We can observe them on ‘Barn Owl TV’ in the propagation office as the male brings rat treats to the female, since she is the one who remains on the nest. Barn owls tend to lay many eggs and our gal, Athena is no different. Barn Owls are indeterminate layers. Just like a chicken, they will continue to lay eggs. Several factors including weather, food availability and the females physical condition can affect how long this continues. 

Pulling eggs to be candled

We pulled 8 eggs to see how many are viable. Each egg was candled (put up to an overpriced flashlight--a bird’s equivalent of an ultrasound.) This process tells us how developed the young are, as raptors lay an egg about every other day until the clutch is full. Barn owls tend to have large clutch sizes of 8-12 eggs and up to 3 clutches a year. As soon as the first clutch of babies have grown, they begin laying the next clutch.

Placing the questionable eggs in an incubator for monitoring

Some eggs had a lot of veins and dark blobs in them. This is a good sign and indicates a developing baby Barn Owl. However, a couple of the eggs had some abnormalities. These eggs were removed and placed in an incubator to monitor more frequently. (It is possible that they are either early in the development process or infertile.)

If all goes well the result will be a new generation of baby owls such as these 14 day old chicks

The rest of the eggs we placed back in the nest box for mom to take care of.  The female was allowed to return to her nest box and we rechecked barn owl TV to make sure all was ok. The male reminds us of his parental responsibilities with a defensive fly-by every time we have to feed. (He doesn’t normally bother us.)

By seven weeks our little owlets will be well on their way to looking like their parents

The incubation period is 30-35 days so if all goes well, we will start to see some pipping activity (chicks breaking out of the eggs). Hopefully these chicks will join our list of Barn Owls returned to the wild.

Submitted by Christina Lavallee, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Trainer

Parenting: it's not for everyone

Not everyone is a great parent (you try sitting on an egg all day!) and even the best parents sometimes need a little help. This is the case with two of our breeding black vultures. In the past they've "given up" on their eggs after a few days, making it necessary for us to remove the eggs from their nest and foster them with our cochin hens, who are ideal egg moms, to say the least.

In this video, you see the two eggs being taken and replaced with dummy wooden eggs and then put in the coop under a very accommodating chicken:

Who's on eggs?

As we look forward to more spring babies, one chick I can't wait to see hatch is the Lanner Falcon. In the wild, Lanner Falcons are found primarily in Africa, but their range extends into parts of Greece and Italy as well as Asia Minor. Lanners are monogamous and known for their dramatic courtship flight displays. They typically lay between 1 and 5 eggs that incubate for 32 days before hatching.

Here you see our Lanner Falcon, Laela, settling down to incubate her two eggs.

Hatch alert! Augur Buzzard pipping

As you can see from the video below, new augur buzzards are on the way! The augur buzzard chick has started to pip, or break, out of the egg. As Arusha switches with Tyler, you can see one of the eggs has a hole in it. She was chirping to the egg and it was chirping back.

"What is the hatch process?" you may ask. First, the chick breaks through the membrane that surrounds it into the air cell at the larger end of the egg. When that happens, you can hear the baby cheeping and the egg starts rocking and rolling. As the CO2 builds up, the chick's neck muscles start to contract and it breaks the egg shell (see hole in egg below). Breaking into the air cell is called an internal pip, while breaking through the shell is called an external pip.

The hatching takes anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. We don't generally intervene because it takes time for all of the blood vessels in the membrane to shut down. If you tear the membrane before they shut down, the resulting blood can kill the chick.

This baby will be raised by the parents in order to avoid imprinting.