Manitoba Peregrines > West Winnipeg Peregrines
West Winnipeg - 2012 / Beau & Jules
bcbird:
Not good news about little Nipper, but very relieved it wasn't Beau.
I like the names.
It is quite something to picture three big birds protesting confinemen tin a very, very small sub-compact car!
birdcamfan:
Too bad. I was just thinking the other day that things had gone well with the fledges and we hadn't had any disasters yet. Should have nipped that thought in the bud I guess. We have been lucky this year. Very blessed.
The Peregrine Chick:
Names ....
female 1 - Lilith - name just jumped out at me when I was driving the three of them off to Prairie Wildlife prior to heading out to the hack site. Bird is protesting her confinement, sorry, start again, big bird is protesting her confinement on the passenger seat of a very very small sub-compact car. And the name just jumped into my head.
female 2 - Juliet - again, just a name that seemed to suit given that they hatched on a ledge and she's always calling out to her siblings. Made me think of Shakespeare's Juliet. Maybe with such a romantic name she will survive to find her Romeo!
male - did I have a name for him - yes. Am I going to use it, no. Just doesn't seem appropriate anymore. It would have been a great name so long as he survived to migrate out and (hopefully many times) back again. As he hasn't, I decided to give him a name that honours what we did know about him (not much granted), something that will immortalize him even though we knew him for such a short time. There were two distinctive things about him, both behavioural that we discovered when we put his bands on. One I just can't name him after, too embarassing for him, sort of like calling a rottweiler "kitty". The other was that he liked to bite, and bite hard. And of course as the person who was holding him I was the bitee, even through the gloves I was wearing. So, because of the three birds he was the smallest (being the only male) and the one who gave me bruises in the back of my hands right through the thick leather gloves I was wearing, he's been re-christened "Nipper". Our little Nipper was a nice little bird and it was just dumb luck I suspect that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and became our, so far (knock on wood) first mortality of 2012. If we are very very lucky (knock on wood) he will be our only fatalilty in 2012.
The Peregrine Chick:
Great Horned Owls are the only confirmed predator of peregrines - and no, its not necessarily for food, it can just be to kill. Yes they are territorial while the chicks are around but they don't migrate so their territories change in shape/size through the seasons but there is always a presence on territory.
Was the West Winnipeg male killed for food? Don't think so. My understanding is that we have a decent small mammal population this year and a peregrine can outfly an owl on speed alone.
Jan:
Very sad news
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