MI / Port Huron - 2010

[The Peregrine Chick]

Here's a great banding video of the event ... not up-close and personal but you get a great look at just how protective and agile Tonga and her mate are defending their offspring from the brightly-coloured humans.

From the Times Herald - Banding baby peregrine falcons at Blue Water Bridge

[Alison]

Voting is now under way for names for the chicks at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.

Vote for your favorite baby falcon names

These are the finalist names chosen by MDOT for the peregrine falcon chicks born this spring at the Blue Water Bridge.  The names were nominated by readers at thetimesherald.com over the past week. The polls below will stay up into Tuesday morning. After that, the names will be used to christen the falcons when they are banded Wednesday morning.  Remember to tell your friends and family to vote. And remember to vote for both your favorite boy and girl names.

State biologists don't know how many birds need to be banded yet because they haven't gotten too close to the nest yet. And they don't know the genders of the three or four fledglings yet.  The readers who first suggested the winning names will share a cash prize.

[Kinderchick]

What interested me about this story is that there was a photo of the female, with her name given as "Tonga".
I remembered that years ago there was a juvie named Tonga from an Ontario site. I thought it was Mississauga, so did a search, and found her. She was born in 2003 at the Mississauga nest, banded black/black 85/H.
And she is the female at Port Huron!

Great researching, Alison! What a beautiful looking peregrine, "Tonga" is!

[carly]

Great news about Tonga, thanks Alison!  We're taking over I tell you!!    

[Alison]

I believe the male at Blue Water Bridge is unbanded.

Information from 2008:

June 5, 2008

Wednesday, June 4th. We had a successful banding event today at the Blue Water Bridge site. Confirmation that the female (all black band 85/H) is the same female as the previous three years, Tonga was born in 2003 in Ontario and arrived at the Blue Water Bridge in 2005 when MDOT placed a nesting box under the bridge. She has produced 12 peregrine chicks in the four years (8 females and 4 males). The male is unbanded and has been her partner for two years, replacing the original male Dubya (origin Wisconsin). We banded three chicks (2 female and 1 male), all three appeared to be healthy (approximately 30 days old).

http://macombaudubon.net/Falcon_Page_2008.htm

[Alison]

2010 NESTING SEASON

An Ontario falcon is the resident female at Port Huron, Michigan.

Falcon contest again takes flight

Helping Port Huron take wing again is on Bill Fockler's mind.  He felt encouraged Tuesday by the level of participation he'd seen in a new contest to name the baby peregrine falcons hatched this spring at the Blue Water Bridge.

The Michigan Department of Transportation is asking residents for name suggestions -- and, if yours is chosen, you could win cash from the Times Herald. The newspaper announced the contest online early Tuesday.  MDOT has been helping to rescue the endangered species and has worked to keep a nest of the birds thriving beneath the bridge.

"Some people are going to see this as a waste of money -- and it is not," said Fockler, maintenance supervisor at the bridge. He will be responsible for reviewing the suggested names and choosing the finalists.  "For one thing, the falcons help us at the bridge by keeping the pigeon population down. The pigeons cause a lot of damage."

. . . .

Biologists hope to band the birds with their new names by June 2, so the results will have to be tallied quickly. Times Herald employees and their relatives won't be allowed to win.  Eventually, the final choices are to be registered with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment. 

The bridge has been a "very successful nesting site" for the falcons, Fockler said.  "We found out that one of our fledglings that hatched at the bridge -- named Freedom -- has established his own area in Cleveland, Ohio. We were able to trace that through the DNR doing the banding."

On Tuesday evening, Fockler said he'd already seen some of the names suggested during the day by readers commenting online to an article posted at the Times Herald's online site.  "It's great that the community can get involved, and to see all the people become a part of this."

source:  http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20100526/NEWS01/5260310/Falcon-contest-again-takes-flight

What interested me about this story is that there was a photo of the female, with her name given as "Tonga".  I remembered that years ago there was a juvie named Tonga from an Ontario site. I thought it was Mississauga, so did a search, and found her. She was born in 2003 at the Mississauga nest, banded black/black 85/H.  And she is the female at Port Huron!

 
Tonga in 2003                             Tonga in 2009