The Falcon Cam: A bird’s eye view!
Welcome to the 2013 DNREC Peregrine Falcon Webcam – featuring resident peregrines Red Girl and CJ as they go about raising another brood in Delaware!
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Streaming video from the 19th floor of the Brandywine Building in downtown Wilmington, the Falcon Cam follows the flight and fate of this pair and their offspring.
Peregrine Falcons, once a federally endangered species, have been using a nest box, provided by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, on the Brandywine Building since 1992. In the past decade, this site has been home to some of Delaware’s most successful falcons, often producing three or more eyasses (baby falcons) each year. The Falcon Cam comes to you through DNREC and project partners, the Delmarva Ornithological Society and DuPont’s Clear Into The Future Program with support from Citibank and others, projecting what's sure to be another exciting season in the skies of Wilmington.
2013 Milestones
May 14 – US Fish & Wildlife Service raptor biologist Craig Koppie enters the nest box and bands the four chicks. He finds them thriving, including the fourth chick born, which had been removed from the nest box at risk of survival before Mr. Koppie's care for two weeks brought it back to health for reintroduction to its parents and siblings.
May 3 – Two weeks after it was removed April 19 malnourished from the nest box by the US Fish & Wildlife Service and at risk for survival from not having been fed by its parents, the fourth peregrine falcon chick was returned to its parents and siblings in good health and with full expectation of its fledging when the time comes to leave the nest. The chick was last in this year's clutch to hatch and was unable to compete for food with its livelier siblings when USFWS raptor biologist Craig Koppie removed it for an extended period of sustenance and care.
April 18 – A fourth chick was born late in the evening and a decision was made by US Fish & Wildlife Service, after asking permission from DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, to remove the chick from the nest as it was faring poorly, in hopes of returning it to health by daily care and feeding from USFWS raptor biologist Craig Koppie.
April 16 – First, second, and third hatch of 2013! At 7:37 a.m., the first chick was assisted from its egg by Red Girl. She moved the chick aside and eventually placed it back with the clutch of soon-to-hatch eggs to keep it warm. Later, at about 12:50 p.m., the second chick arrived! Even more amazingly, at about 4 p.m., a third egg hatched. Having chicks hatch so closely together made for unusually rewarding observation - and all three chicks appear to be doing well! Here is a video clip, courtesy of Kim Steininger, of the first chick being helped out of its shell by Red Girl: http://youtu.be/p2fbwRNZjDs
March 17 – And so it happens, again! A fifth egg arrives for the second year in a row, and just in time for St. Patrick's Day.
March 12 – A third egg is laid in the nest box, followed less than 24 hours later by a fourth egg, with another extraordinary clutch (for peregrines) of five eggs still possible.
March 9 – Red Girl delivers a second egg in camera view at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon. Expectation is more to follow, as she completes her clutch,
March 7 – We have an egg! Sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Red Girl selected her preferred scrape and produced the pair’s first egg of the season. Cam viewers may see the egg exposed for extended periods, but this is expected and full-time incubation duties won’t commence until early the entire clutch is laid over the course of the next week!
January and February – Both resident adults, Red Girl and CJ, are seen in the nest box making scrapes and courting. As March approached, activity in the box picked up as the pair prepared for the first egg of 2013! 
DNREC's Falcon Cam is made possible in conjunction with sponsors DuPont’s Clear into the Future program and the Delmarva Ornithological Society, among others.
