05-29-2021 What happened to the camera?

The nest box camera is hazy and the images are obscured.  I think that one of the youngsters may have pointed his tail in the wrong direction during a bathroom event.  It is too risky to the young falcons to try and clean it at this time.  Now that they are pretty mobile, they could fall off the ledge in an attempt to get away from a human intruder.  This happened several years ago when the camera took a direct hit with bird poop. It is especially frustrating since the camera was cleaned less than 2 weeks ago during banding.  The images from the parapet camera are very clear, so when the chicks are out on the ledge, as they will do more and more, we can see them from that angle. 

The chicks have stayed in the box a lot during the cooler weather the last few days, but I expect that to change as the weather starts to warm again.  They will start to fly in early June.  I hope they wait until they are about 40 days old, which would be June 8 this year.  But they frequently decide they are ready before that and keep the peregrine patrol on their toes.