Thread by @mr_lois_lane

🪶🏩Eighteen stories up in downtown #HamOnt, four peregrine-falcon chicks are preparing to attempt their first flights. When they’re ready, a team of volunteers—Hamilton's Falconwatch—will watch from the street and try to keep them safe. [1/6] tvo.org/article/up-up-…

I wrote about the watch last year (tvo.org/article/how-ha…) but then, there were no new chicks in town for them to monitor. Now, after a particularly dramatic year, there's a big family and plenty of excitement expected. The four chicks were banded on May 27 and I attended. [2/6]

To start, climber John Millar (seen from Falconwatch's camera at the nest) descended from the roof of the Sheraton hotel and onto the ledge with the nest. He loaded the chicks into a bag and stayed there so the parents would not see the chicks were gone and abandon them. [3/6]

Once inside, Mark Nash, director of the Toronto-based Canadian Peregrine Foundation, and Anne Yagi, an environmental consultant, weighed each chick, determined their sex and banded them for identification in Canada and the U.S. Then, the birds were returned to the nest. [4/6]

Senior Falconwatch monitor Pat Baker (on the right) says with four fledglings attempting to fly, it'll be tough for volunteers on the ground to track them, but she says the goal remains the same as ever: “To successfully fledge four chicks and see them on their way." [5/6]

Marzuk Gazi, a new volunteer coordinator, will be one of two people working 12-hour shifts managing volunteers. He's excited to start and that anyone keen on joining should reach out. “We’ll need all the volunteers we can get.” [6/6]
tvo.org/article/up-up-…