Montrealers’ favourite falcon family has some new additions | CBC News

Ève Bélisle, a research associate at Polytechnique Montréal, had a restless night Saturday, knowing that some babies she thinks of as her godchildren could be born any minute.

“It’s like a soap opera, but real life!” said Bélisle, after watching the falcon eggs she’s been monitoring finally hatch in real time.

Two chicks cracked their eggs Sunday, just five hours apart, in the special nest box high atop the Université de Montréal campus. The hatchlings can be seen huddling under their mother, Ève — named after the researcher — or being fed on a YouTube livestream.

Ève had been incubating four eggs for weeks, and viewers were anticipating seeing the little critters peep through in late May. Bélisle said she knew the chicks’ arrival was imminent — she could hear their little chirps Saturday night as they poked the first holes in their shells.

“We could hear it, the little baby,” she said.

“I woke up a few times during the night to watch what was happening but of course this morning it was super exciting to finally see it.”

Bélisle, the self-proclaimed godmother of the falcons, has always had an interest in birds — and particularly peregrine falcons.

When she was younger she took a shot at bird photography. In 2008, she convinced the university to install a nest box. The first chicks hatched the next year and the nest box has been home to several falcons since.

She installed a camera in the box and started a YouTube channel to livestream the birds’ activities. The stream feeds 24/7 year-round and Bélisle says about 400 people regularly tune in.

Bélisle says watching an egg hatch is an out of the ordinary experience, and people have been tuning in out of curiosity.

“It’s also moving because it’s the cycle of life, and it’s touching for different reasons,” she said.

“It’s relaxing to watch because in our everyday life we’re always running somewhere, we’re always stressed about something. But for them, the only stress is maybe a bird flying here and there that they don’t like and finding food.”

Now, Ève the falcon and her partner M (short for Monsieur) can be seen caring for their newborns, and waiting for the last two eggs to hatch, expected to happen this week.

“They’re really good parents,” said Bélisle.

Peregrine falcons eat meat right away, so M is tasked with catching prey like pigeons, which Ève tears into tiny pieces to feed the chicks, which eat between three and eight times per day. The chicks are still too young to regulate their own body temperature or leave the nest yet, but will take the first steps to become airborne — such as walking on ledges — in just under two months.

Bélisle expects the falcons to stick around until autumn.

Because falcons are still a vulnerable and protected species, she hopes the livestream raises awareness about them among its viewers.

“It’s going to teach them that there’s nature even in the middle of the city and we have to protect them and they’re going to learn to love them,” she said.

“They’re going to want to protect them, so that’s my mission with the cameras.”