Two falcon chicks take flight

Two of downtown Hamilton’s peregrine falcon chicks made their first flights today — one by accident.

Falconwatch co-ordinator Sandra Davey reports that Dixon, the only male, took off from the nest on an 18th-floor ledge at the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel at 5:35 a.m., circled over the Art Gallery of Hamilton and landed on a perch near the top of the Standard Life Building west of the hotel.

Falcon Cam

Shortly after 7 a.m., Gleig bumped her sister Durand off the ledge, seemingly by accident, and Durand flow in an opposite arc, over the gallery and back to the Robert Thompson Building east of the hotel.

Strathcona, who took her first flight Monday afternoon, was back on the nest ledge with Gleig at mid-morning today.

Davey says Strathcona spent Monday night on the Thompson Building before landing on the Jackson Square plaza where volunteers rescued her and returned her to the Sheraton roof. From there, she jumped down to the nest site.

Gleig, the heaviest of the chicks, is the only one yet to fly.