Author Topic: McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / Zeus & Hurricane  (Read 133075 times)

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Offline allikat

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #308 on: July 02, 2009, 20:53 »
I'm thinkin'.... :D

Offline BirdLover

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #307 on: July 02, 2009, 20:51 »
spontaneity is good allikat!   ;D

Offline allikat

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #306 on: July 02, 2009, 20:48 »
I love reading everyone's posts from their experience today...I'm thinking I should of taken a sick day *cough, cough*!  One of these days, I won't be consistent and I'll actually witness something  ::)

Offline BirdLover

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #305 on: July 02, 2009, 20:41 »
Just call me BirdLiver  :-[

Offline Kinderchick

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #304 on: July 02, 2009, 19:46 »
Wow! What can I say?! An extraordinary day at the McKenzie Seeds banding in Brandon! ;D I had never attended a live banding before and it was well worth the 2 hr. road trip! (Thanks for the invite and the ride, bccs!) ;D One of the best parts, for me, was TPC setting up her sight scope on the parkade roof across from McKenzie Seeds, where all of us "phanatics" were situated. What an amazing view of Hurrican & Zeus and the 4 chicks in the nestbox!(Thanks, TPC! ) And to hear all the squawking and watch all the swooping of mom & dad, they certainly made a valiant effort to protect their chicks and their territory! Sure was a good thing that Dan was wearing his protective gear, although I don't think he was struck!  :P It was also wonderful to meet some of the "phanatics" and to put a face to the Forum names, that I have come to know through posts on the Forum; bccs, Sami, BirdLover (not BirdLiver! ;)), Rose, Rapidcitymbfan, Jean & Fred (?), and of course, Dennis, Dr. Bob, TPC and Dan-the-Man! Can hardly wait to see Dennis's photos! After the banding, he did show us 2 of the most awesome photos while we eating lunch! I feel extremely priviledged to have been a part of this day and have the utmost respect for all those who work to protect endangered species of any kind!

Offline Moonstar

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #303 on: July 02, 2009, 19:27 »
Thanks for the posts on the banding everyone.  Sounds like you all had a great time.  Wish I could have been there but I could not get time off of work.  Short week and so much to do.
All your explanations are wonderful and I could visualize how things were.
Feeling a teeny weeny bit of envy but also very happy to read about it.
Nice surpris for you all to find 4 chicks instead of 3. Just so exciting.
Thanks again to all of you for the great postings.

Offline allikat

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #302 on: July 02, 2009, 19:14 »
That's wonderful...and can't wait to read more  :D
I'm so happy that it was a great day for banding and that ya'll were able to take part.

Offline bccs

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #301 on: July 02, 2009, 18:53 »
Today was extraordinary. It started very early, met Kinderchick at Polo Park, cruised along Portage Ave and met up with Sami.
Hit the highway and 2 and 1/2 hours zipped by. Great company, great conversation :-*. We got to the parkade, unfolded ourselves ( well just Sami, cause Kinderchick and I are vertically challenged ) and looked about for other birdie people. We spotted Rose and RapidcityManitoba fan, became instant friends and started to laugh and be silly ( Can y'all believe that ::) ::))
Then birdlover showed up, directed us to the best vantage point. And then TPC, Dennis and Dr. Bob pulled up.
Well now, it was like the tooth fairy and Santa Clause all rolled into one. TPC most graciously gave us her sight scope to look through. And cause Linderlou couldn't make it ( hope all is well LL ) we had no walkie-talkies. TPC, being the godess that she is, decided cell phone on speaker would work, and lo and behold, we had a match-up.
So off the 3 trundled to do the banding. The rest of us stayed at the parkade, laughing, joking, getting to know each other ( not a hard thing to do ), just having a grand old time.
And then........
The falcon parents went into high alert. Swooping, talking, diving, and angry. Yup, the people were up on the roof >:( >:(
Saw Bob, then Dennis ,then Tracy. And the the ladder appeared!!!!! Meantime, TPC had called the watchers cell, went on speaker phone and we were all able to hear a blow by blow description of the banding.
Had a lovely wave from Dan the man on the ladder, we all did the awwww thing and waved back.

Those chicks were some annoyed.
And at the same time, the parents were none too pleased.That is putting it mildly ;D
gotta go, more to follow.....

Offline BirdLover

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #300 on: July 02, 2009, 18:14 »
Yep, the entire thing was a real blast!  I will be there next year too.  I may have to make a special trip into Winnipeg to attend one of the Phanatic dates that happen occassionally.


And yes, the birds preformed great!  I was in awe of their aerobatics  :o :o

Offline bccs

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #299 on: July 02, 2009, 18:12 »
And just what were my thoughts on the Brandon Banding...well !
The Bison Burgers & Fries at the Double Decker are great ! Ice water...cool and refreshing...after time on the roof . Endless cups of coffee (hate having to ask for a refill)
A private area for the Phanatics...keeping the rowdy bunch away from the regulars!
Almost forgot...The Birds Performed Great...should have a couple of decent photos ??
Was great to put a name to the face and a...you know the rest !

Cheers !

Well said Bob, truly was an outstanding day. ;D

Offline photosbydennis

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #298 on: July 02, 2009, 18:08 »
And just what were my thoughts on the Brandon Banding...well !
The Bison Burgers & Fries at the Double Decker are great ! Ice water...cool and refreshing...after time on the roof . Endless cups of coffee (hate having to ask for a refill)
A private area for the Phanatics...keeping the rowdy bunch away from the regulars!
Almost forgot...The Birds Performed Great...should have a couple of decent photos ??
Was great to put a name to the face and a...you know the rest !

Cheers !

Offline BirdLover

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #297 on: July 02, 2009, 18:06 »
Whichever ones they are they will be extraordinary!  You have such a talent Dennis!

Offline photosbydennis

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #296 on: July 02, 2009, 18:04 »
As TPC wonders what he will post !!!  :P

Offline The Peregrine Chick

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #295 on: July 02, 2009, 16:59 »
We have, as BL mentionned, three females and 1 male by measuring their feet.  One of the females and the male were definites, but the other two females were a wee bit iffy - could have been large males, or small females but as we were banding at 21 days of age, we erred on the side of caution and banded them female so there was not problem with the bands on their legs.  And the band size worked well, loose but not too loose to be a hazard so we are pretty sure they are females.

So why are we questionning this you ask?  Because the female at this site was measured exactly the same way (we have a band size measuring tool) and it turns out that our male is actually a female.  A very small female - hard to tell the male and female apart by size here as they were dive bombing us in fact!  So just like Princess and Trey seem to have produced smaller females in 2007 (three of the four chicks were female, we originally thought two and two), it may be that Hurricane is doing the same thing, time will tell.

We also put coloured electrical tape on the aluminium (not coloured) band - yellow, red and green for the females, white for the male.  We don't generally do this so we will have to see how long it takes our the little dears to figure out how to get it off.  Hopefully it will stay for 6 weeks, another 3-4 weeks until they fledge and they a couple of weeks to more easily identify them post-fledging.

And Dennis does have some amazing  :o photos!  He's home now working his way through them ...

Offline RCF

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McKenzie Seeds - 2009 / July
« Reply #294 on: July 02, 2009, 16:54 »
The banding was awesome.  It was wonderfull to meet TPC Bccs,kinderchick,birdlover,sami & Dennis. These falcons are such majestic birds and really protective of their chicks. I had a great time.