Ornithologists, bird lovers, and followers of predators from the air have been soaring with intrigue and interest in the past weeks with falcon news.
Eyas emerge
Eve, the mother peregrine falcon whose residence is atop the 23rd floor of a tower on the Université de Montréal (UdeM) campus, moves atop her eggs and pecks with her beak as the first of two eyas (baby falcons) emerges from its shell.
A second falcon emerges from the other shell in a second video and the cast of falcons begin their life starring in a reality TV show livestreamed on YouTube.
Eyas are white, puffy creatures with dark eyes and beaks that will shed their down coats for feathers in around three weeks.
Falcons, like almost every bird, have multiple collective nouns to describe the group. Caldrons, casts, soars, towers, bates, cadges, or rings of falcons are all used to describe a group.
Migration to the Mercier
A second caldron of peregrine falcons nest under the Honoré-Mercier Bridge in Kahnawake, Que. on Montreal’s South Shore.
The eggs in that nest were transplanted from the Laviolette Bridge between Trois-Rivières and Saint-Gregoire due to construction work on the Laviolette jeopardizing a clutch.
“The pair of peregrine falcons nesting on the Laviolette Bridge had decided to nest in the southern section of the bridge, where most of the work will take place in 2024, despite the measures put in place to encourage them to adopt the northern section of the bridge,” the Falcon Environmental Facebook post explains.
“Mitigation measures were put in place following their installation near the construction site, but the progress of the work would create disturbance impossible to mitigate effectively.”
Teams worked with Transport Quebec and the Environment Ministry to move the eggs in collaboration with the Jacques Cartier & Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI), the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) and the Mohawk Bridge Consortium (MBC).
“The couple living on the Honoré-Mercier Bridge did not have a complete clutch, with only two eggs out of a potential of four,” the post continues. “The development of their two eggs was checked and, unfortunately, they were not fertile. And so, the four eggs from Laviolette Bridge, in search of a new home, were adopted by the parents of the Honoré-Mercier Bridge.”
That soar of falcons can also be followed live on YouTube.