Du Bois Library Falcons
Thank you so much for your gifts to the Falcon Cam this season!
This live stream is made possible by support from viewers like you!
Stay tuned! The falcon cam will be live as soon as the weather cooperates and we can install the camera. Every effort is being made to bring you the Falcons of Du Bois Library. In the meantime, please enjoy this video with sound. Thank you for your patience.
There were originally four eggs in the nest box for the 2017 season. Over the weekend of May 6-7, two of the eggs were lost. One disappeared and the other was eaten by the female parent. We cannot be certain of the cause of the loss of the eggs. On Wednesday, May 10, two chicks pipped and hatched. On May 30, Tom French and David Paulson of MassWildlife banded the two chicks. The female chick is band number 08 Black over BV Green, and the male chick is band number 07 Black over BU Green. They both successfully fledged in mid June and can still be seen on camera, although not as regularly as viewers would hope! If you are on campus this summer and fall, look up and listen and chances are you'll see and hear them!
April 2016 marked the second nesting season for the mated pair of Peregrine falcons that successfully raised two chicks, a male and a female, in 2015. Of the four eggs that were laid in 2016, two were not viable. The first chick hatched on May 18 and perished a day later, having accidentally choked on a piece of food. The second chick, a male, hatched on May 21, thrived, and was banded by Tom French of MassWildlife, on June 13. His band number is 90 Black over BS Green. As of June 27, both chicks successfully fledged and can be seen flying and vocalizing alongside the adults.
Peregrine falcons have successfully nested on the roof of the Du Bois Library at UMass Amherst since 2003. The previous pair, which nested on the Library roof from 2003-2014, hatched a total of 37 chicks. The live webcam was installed in 2012 thanks to the UMass Amherst Facilities Planning Division, UMass Amherst Information Technology, the Libraries' Systems and Web Management Department, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife), and the Friends of the Libraries.
We hope you enjoy the Falcon Cam. It is intended to intervene with nature as little as possible; intervention with wildlife is never taken lightly. For chicks to fledge successfully under observation, we let nature take its course as much as possible. If the need to intervene should arise, the Library works with university, state, and federal agencies to determine when and if this will occur. The birds are wild and have chosen to nest in the box; there has been a pair of Peregrine Falcons at this same site for many years. We hope you understand that we care deeply for the falcons and do whatever we can to help them thrive while respecting the natural balance.
Questions about the Falcon Cam? Contact Carol Connare at cconnare@library.umass.edu or 413-545-0995.
Thank you for your patience.