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Location: Milton, Pa.
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Harlequin falcon egg is not expected to hatch Published On Wed Apr 20 2011Hopes are not high for Harlequin.
To much fanfare and the delight of Harlequin Enterprises staff, a peregrine falcon egg was laid Tuesday on the barren, concrete ledge of a North York office tower, but a local expert doesn’t expect the speckled burnt orange egg to hatch.
The ledge is too exposed and the concrete too cold. Wind, water and the chill of the concrete is expected to draw too much heat from the egg, said Mark Nash of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.
“It will freeze to death,” Nash said today.
Should any chicks hatch, the frail newborns are still vulnerable to hypothermia.
The mating pair — Quest, the female, and Kendal, the male — are being monitored daily by the romance novel publishing company, whose offices have a front-row seat for the drama. CEO Donna Hayes plans to name the first chick Harlequin.
Nash, however, fears no chicks will hatch until the peregrine foundation can install a nesting tray on the ledge. They had hoped to do that today, but wet, windy weather has delayed efforts.
Nash said his group is working with building management on ways to get the tray on the ledge, such as dropping a volunteer down on a window washing chair or lifting someone up in a cherry picker. The ledge is luckily on the fifth floor.
They hope to have the tray in place Thursday or Friday.
The tray, a simple wooden box containing pea gravel, is crucial to egg survival, Nash explained. The falcons can dig a small bowl, which will keep an expected four to five eggs together, providing communal warmth and allowing the two-pound birds to sit on all the eggs. The gravel also provides drainage so the eggs stay dry.
Both Quest and Kendal are urban birds, themselves raised in a pea gravel environment.
“Quest will be attracted to that nest tray,” Nash said.
In fact, Quest got in a nasty dust-up with another female falcon last year in Port Colborne, Ont., over such a tray.
“Quest was caught on camera squabbling with the resident female of a nest box just after a series of eggs had been laid,” Nash said. “They fought in full view of the camera. The resident female’s eggs were destroyed.
“She was birthed in a nest box with pea gravel and fought for a nest box with pea gravel.”
The tray won’t help the current egg, which Quest is already showing signs of abandoning. If volunteers get the nest box on the ledge, Nash isn’t sure if Quest will lay the next three to four eggs in the tray or use the ledge. The rule of thumb is for a falcon to lay an egg every other day. Incubation begins after laying the second last egg.
Falcons can produce up to three clutches of eggs over a summer. Falcon egg incubation is 33 to 35 days.
“If the first clutch doesn’t hatch, she may lay the balance of clutches in the tray,” Nash said
_________________
"The time to protect a species is while it is still common"
Rosalie Edge
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Founder
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