NEWS

Live from Wilmington: Webcam shows baby falcons high above

Delmarva Ornithological Society oversees nesting box, which for six years has beamed images from Brandywine Building

Molly Murray
The News Journal
In this image captured from the Wilmington Peregrine Falcon Webcam Project, the nesting box on top of The Brandywine Building in Wilmington is shown. The Delmarva Ornithological Society is running the project.

Sure you can watch in real time the waves crash onto Rehoboth or Bethany beaches or check out traffic at the state's busiest intersections, but for life and death drama, the Wilmington Peregrine Falcon Webcam is hard to beat.

Call it reality television, now in its sixth season from the top floor of The Brandywine Building at 1000 N. West St. in Wilmington.

So here's a recap if you missed previous years: the matriarch of this nesting box hails from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her original mate perished after an amazing series of acrobatic sky battles over Wilmington. Her new mate -- born and bred in Wilmington -- maybe has something of an Oedipus complex, but we're not judging. He is her son.

The first year the Delmarva Ornithological Society installed the nesting box webcam, none of the eggs hatched, but this year, four of the five eggs produced fluffy, white chicks.

Bill Stewart, with the ornithological society, said there was some concern about this year's eggs.

STORY: Wilmington's peregrine falcons redefine bird-watching

"We were wondering if they were duds," because they took so long to hatch, he said. And then, about two weeks ago, on a weekend, four pecked out of their shells. One of the parents moved the fifth egg to the side.

The birds can tell when an egg isn't viable, especially when the other babies start moving around just prior to hatching, Stewart said.

This season promises to be a great one: four fluffy, white, baby chicks are thriving inside the nesting box as their parents come and go bringing in food.

"It's amazing," Stewart said. "They grow so fast."

In a given day, as many as 14,000 people have been checking out the progress of courtship, the eggs and the hatchlings, he said. Some viewers are from distant places such as Italy and Israel, he said.

By Memorial Day weekend, the animals will be fledged, but it takes a Wilmington village to make sure the young birds survive those first attempts at flight.

A team of volunteers are on ledge watch in the days before the chicks try their wings for the first time.

A Peregrine Falcon is shown during the Wilmington Peregrine Falcon Watch, in which birders gather at the City Center Parking Garage at 11th and Tatnall streets, on June 14, 2012.  A nesting box on the Brandywine Building can be viewed online.

As the birds try to fly, they sometimes make "that one way attempt" so volunteers recover the babies and bring them back to the nest until they perfect their skills, Stewart said.

Sometime in the second week of June, the Ornithological Society and sponsors including Delmarva Power, invite visitors to the top of the City Center Parking Garage opposite the Brandywine Building. There, people can see the adult falcons teaching the young how to hunt and exchange food in mid-flight.

Reach Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.