Madame X perched on the Worldline Falcon Cam
Next time you are in Hamilton, Ontario, and passing by the Sheraton Hotel, look up and you might be able to see a pair of Peregrine Falcons who are currently preparing a nest to lay their eggs.
Or, instead of breaking your neck trying to catch a glimpse, you can watch from your desktop using the Worldline Falcon Webcam.
The Hamilton Community Peregrine Project hosted by the Hamilton Falcon Watch and the Hamilton Naturalist Club reactivated the cameras last month and currently they are on the lookout for courting and nesting behaviour.
They expect to see eggs in early April – or basically right now!
In 2012 Madame X and Surge hatched three chicks, all boys – Beckett (682 grams), Felker (671 grams) and Tiffany, who weighed in at a trim 641 grams. All named for Hamilton waterfalls, all three birds flew strongly on their first flights, and quickly mastered the skies without need for any rescues.
Surge, perched on the Camera beam
Falcon Watch says Madame X was hatched on a bridge on Pennsylvania Route 309, the Cross-Valley Expressway in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Banded as a hatchling on 7 June 1999, she was known to the falcon watchers in Northeast PA as ‘Runaround Sue’, a name suggested after she was found running along the expressway guide wall one morning.
Hatched and banded in Etobicoke in 2002, Surge spent at least part of the 2004-2005 seasons trying to establish a nest at the Burlington Lift Bridge. In 2006 he replaced the male at the Sheraton nest and has been in Hamilton since. This will be the nineteenth year the same nest site on the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel has been used.
Worldline is thrilled to be able to provide the webcam for the world to watch Madame X and Surge as they prepare for their new family.