Week Three in Review
5/18: As of today, the chicks are now between 20-25 days old. In the past week we’ve seen more feather development with facial, wing, and tail feathers visible on all four chicks amongst the fluffy white down. We’ve also seen all four chicks leave and come back to the nest box periodically as they begin exploring their surroundings along the ledge.
下週您應該期待什麼？
As they become increasingly mobile and better able to walk around, they are likely to wander off camera for several hours at a time, or even spend the night off camera. This is a normal part of peregrine falcon chick development and has taken place in past years with other broods. There are several other sheltering opportunities along the ledge, and viewers should not become overly concerned if they are not able to detect the chicks on camera as reliably as they used to. Further, the parents will continue to watch over the chicks and provide them with prey items.
Pending no inclement weather, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources biologists plan on visiting the Riverfront Plaza building on Friday, May 22nd to band the falcon chicks. This will be an incredibly exciting year for us, as we will be accompanied by the winners from our Falcon Banding Day Raffle. We want to extend our thanks to everyone who supported our wildlife conservation work by purchasing a ticket and our congratulations to the winners who have already been notified by DWR staff.
在結束日，其中三隻小雞的年齡在 24 至 29 天之間。除了獲得終身的腿帶外，每個小雞還將進行重量和測量，我們將確定其性別。綁帶是一種非常重要的工具，用於在其餘生命中促進個人識別。這可以提供有關這些幼鳥在尋求建立自己個別繁殖地區的旅途中的信息，以及其壽命、生產力（產卵數和卵子卵的數量）以及與其他可能與其他帶鷹相互作用的關係。整體而言，帶狀使生物學家能夠在維吉尼亞獵鷹群繼續在恢復之路上更好地跟踪弗吉尼亞獵鷹群。
在環志日，DWR 生物學家還將部署前幾年使用的圍欄，以防止早期羽翼豐滿的事件。當工作人員綁帶小雞並安裝筆時，相機將關閉多達幾個小時。完成此工作後，小雞將返回巢箱，並將相機重新開啟。請留意一篇後續帖子，其中將包含從發布日起的更新！
The female, 95/AK, stands in the nest box surrounded by her chicks.