Miscellaneous peregrines

[Veronica B in UK]

Thanks Alison for this Suffolk news.  I just pray these chicks fledge okay.  So many bridge falcons don't have a successful outcome.  I'll try to keep track of them and would appreciate any updates you might get.  Veronica

[AlisonL]

This was posted on another forum by Big Frank, and relates to a Minneapolis falcon. Her band number would be N/17.

"Hope U dont mind me putting this here...its about a Peregrine from Minnesota that we have identified in Toronto, we believe.

If we are correct in reading her band numbers correctly, the records attached to this band number tells us that she was named Felicia. Felicia was hatched May 24, 2005 at the City Hall, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota USA. She fledged June 5, 2005. On July 8, 2005, she was grounded and sent to the University of Minnesota's Raptor center to be checked out and returned to the nest site shortly after. She is at the Windsor Ambassador Bridge and this is a new nest this season. Not sure how many eggs she is on."

[Nora in IA]

Wow that's super about Felicia if they read the band right!!!  Thanx!

[AlisonL]

Just to clarify - Frank didn't mention the band number, but I looked up Felicia in the Bank Look-up on this site, and everything else matches. I cross-posted this because I thought someone here would like to know.

[AlisonL]

Princess and Trey in Winnipeg, Manitoba now have three chicks. The pic is from their blog.


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[AlisonL]

A very sad day at Winnipeg today. This morning, there was torrential rain which accumulated very quickly. The ledge where Princess and Trey had their nest became filled with water, but Princess would not leave her babies. A rescue was attempted, with a Winnipeg firefighter climbing down from above, recovering the three chicks and placing them in a bag to take to the ground. Very sadly, all three chicks were already dead.  

Princess is originally from Minneapolis, born at the Riverside nest in 2002, band number 39/B.  A new nest box had been built for the pair, but they rejected it in favor of this triangular ledge. Already this year Princess and Trey had dealt with huge quantities of snow, rain and very high winds.

A link to the story, and a video of the rescue attempt:

http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/features/falcon/

[AlisonL]

The Macomb County webcam is now active, although it seems to be having some problems at the moment. The three chicks of Hathor and Nick were banded today:

"Meet the falcons: Clair, Clementine and Lenny

The world got its first close-up on Friday, June 6, of the three Peregrine falcon chicks that live high on a ledge off the 11th Floor of the Macomb County Building in Mount Clemens.

The chicks ? a male and two females ? received their identity bracelets and were named by William Crouchman of St. Clair Shores, chairman of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners.

Kariann Anderson, falcon coordinator for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), donned a hard hat and climbed through a window to fetch the chicks so they could get a medical checkup and their ID bands.

Also participating in the banding were Timothy Payne, supervisor of the DNR?s Southeast Wildlife Management Unit; Ernie Kafcas, DNR wildlife biologist, and

Tom Schneider, bird curator at the Detroit Zoo.

The first chick to get an exam by Erica Shaw, veterinary technician for the Detroit Zoo, was named Clair. Crouchman selected the name to honor Macomb County?s greatest natural resource, Lake St. Clair.

Crouchman named the second female chick Clementine to honor the City of Mount Clemens, the county seat and the falcons? hometown.

The third chick was a male, named Lenny by Crouchman to honor retiring Macomb County Commissioner Leonard Haggerty of Roseville. Haggerty is serving the last of five two-year terms on the County Board. Haggerty also was a long-time Roseville city councilman and mayor from 1975 to 1981."

http://www.macombcountymi.gov/peregrine/webcam.htm

[Nora in IA]

Today at the Yellow Pages building at Markham and Milner in
Scarborough Ontario Canada,a banding of 4 of Ruebens offspring was
done. It is the first successful nesting at this location. 3 male
Peregrine chicks and one female were banded today. The adult female
Lawrie,helped Rueben dive at the MNR officer that was left on the
ledge as the target.

Banded today were Orion,652 grams and 23 days old

Xena the lone female,was 22 days old and weighed in at 890grams.

Radar was 596grams and was 23 days old.

Swoop was 617grams and 21 days old.

Yellow Pages and other tenants of the building and their employees
raised $2100 from both employee donations and chick naming contest as
well as corporate support. Its wonderful they all got behind "their
birds" to help support them. A new webcamera will be installed soon
at this site as well. Much thanks to the gang at Yellow Pages!

[Linda M]

Story about RRP banding at LaCrosse:

"Baby Falcons Tagged in La Crosse

Posted: June 6, 2008 04:53 PM

After decades of work, wildlife specialists have been able to bring back the population of the peregrine falcon.

Workers of the Raptor Resource Project banded three baby falcons of the bird family living on top of the U.S. Bank building in downtown La Crosse. The 25 day-old babies were tagged so specialists can track migration patterns during their lifetimes, in hopes to learn even more about the species.

Volunteer Daniel Berger began banding falcons in the 1950s when the birds faced extinction.  Each year he returns to the Mississippi River area to help identify and tag falcons.  He said the recent work done to save this type of bird and move them to their natural habitat is remarkable.

"The birds were primarily reintroduced by putting them in hack boxes and that's the only reason they're here," said Berger.

Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, has worked with breeding these falcons and assist them make their mighty comeback.  He bred the first falcons in both Wisconsin and Minnesota, and now works with all generations of these birds.

"It's a true conservation success story that involved a unique marriage of industry and building owners and conservationists and universities and so many different individuals all with a common goal of bringing the peregrine back to the American skies," said Anderson.

All three of the baby birds banded today were males.  Officials said once they learn how to fly in the next couple of weeks they are likely to stay within a 70 mile radius of the La Crosse area."

http://wkbt.com/Global/story.asp?S=8444133

[AlisonL]

It has been a very bad week for peregrines. A pair nesting on the WaMu building in downtown Seattle had three chicks, hatched between May 20 and May 22. The first chick died on May 30, the second on June 5, and the third on June 6.

"A peregrine falcon couple nesting atop the WaMu building in downtown Seattle lost its entire brood over the past few days, according to a group monitoring the raptors.

The first death occurred on May 30, according to a blog posted by the Falcon Research Group on Monday. The chick ? also called an eyas ? was under 2 weeks of age. A second death was reported on Thursday. The last of the brood died between 3 and 8 p.m. on Friday, the blog reported.

The deaths are "an unusual event," the Skagit County-based Falcon Research Group said in its blog. "We have not seen this type of mortality among peregrines breeding in Seattle or elsewhere for that matter." "

Link to the complete article:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004464875_raptors08m.html

[Denise]

Thanks for posting that Alison.  We have few monitored Peregrine nesting sites here (compared to farther up the coast and Queen Charlotte Island), so this was a particularly huge loss.   Denise

[AlisonL]

Thanks for posting that Alison.  We have few monitored Peregrine nesting sites here (compared to farther up the coast and Queen Charlotte Island), so this was a particularly huge loss.   Denise

I was very sorry to read about it - I have watched the Seattle peregrines in the past. It has not been a good time lately for peregrines, with the loss of all three Winnipeg chicks last Friday, the loss of all three Salt Lake City chicks when they were only a few days old, and the loss of all the Richmond chicks, among others.

And now information such as the following gives new reasons for concern:

"California's peregrine falcons, once driven to the edge of extinction by the pesticide DDT, now are contaminated with record-high levels of other toxic chemicals that may threaten them again.

State scientists have found that peregrines in Long Beach, Los Angeles and San Francisco contain the highest levels of flame retardants found in any living organism worldwide."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-birds9-2008may09,0,3769945.story

[Diane]

This nest is always interesting.  They gave them eggs again this year.  They were in hens eggs for most of the time, then they switched them to 2 falcon eggs which hatched but the chicks died.  They put them back on hens eggs again and later gave them a chick.  It looks like the chick was given to them on Saturday. 

To get to the pictures of the switch on Saturday, click on the link, scroll down to "click on web cam", scroll down to breeding season 2008 and cliick on pictures. 

http://www.kof.nu/english/index.htm

[Linda M]

Thanks Diane; I've always liked the Helsingborg site, but hadn't checked it much this year.  I really like the reaction from the adult when it sees the chick!  Linda

[AlisonL]

In case Veronica should happen to check in, an update on the pair of peregrines nesting on the Orwell Bridge in Suffolk, England. According to an article, they now have three chicks.

http://www.eadt.co.uk/content/eadt/news/story.aspx?brand=EADOnline&category=News&tBrand=EADOnline&tCategory=news&itemid=IPED09%20Jun%202008%2010%3A43%3A57%3A953