The group watching over a pair of peregrine falcons living atop the Sheraton Hotel have spotted the first chick from a batch of eggs laid in mid-March.
The first offspring from McKeever and Judson poked its head out on Friday and rolled into the view of a dedicated camera hosted by the Hamilton Community Peregrine Project (HCPP).
Last month, the couple beat a 2020 record set for the earliest eggs ever seen by a pair living atop the Sheraton during a mating season.
The falcons moved onto an 18th-floor ‘scrape’ at the Sheraton in early 2022, a nesting spot for peregrines over the last 29 years.
The HCPP says the ledge at the Sheraton has hosted close to 70 babies over almost three decades.
McKeever arrived in the Hamilton area in January 2022 from the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor shortly after the death of Lily, the hotel ledge’s previous resident female.
Judson, McKeever’s mate, arrived in Hamilton from Buffalo at the end of the nesting season in 2021 and the pair had four chicks during that mating season.
They had another four chicks born in late April of last year named Kirkendall, Gibson, Stipley and Delta.
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