The Classroom > Questions from our Younger Fans

2012 - Kinderchicklets / Alphabet Letters and Numbers

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The Peregrine Chick:
Hi Skye & Kinderchick!

Glad you were able to watch the banding yesterday - we were sorry to be a bit late, but we had to fix up the new nestbox for the Brandon chicks and it took a bit longer than we planned.  We also had to get all the banding stuff ready, and the camera, and then get the ladder up to get the chicks down, whew, lots of work to do before we even got around to banding the chicks!

My hands got poked just a little bit by the talons, but only one time did it break the skin and that was when I was holding one foot while Dr Bob was putting the band on the other foot.  The first little male wanted to hold on tight in the beginning so I let him.  Almost can't see it now, but I could see it yesterday.  Mostly I only get one or two little pokes - a bit like when a kitten grabs hold with his claws.  Even though the peregrine chick has long talons, it is really only the sharp point at the end that pokes me and so its only a little poke.  The peregrine chicks aren't trying to hurt me, they just need to grab hold of something because they are a little scared of all the people.  So I let them grab hold of me and we band them as quick as we can and then they go back to their Mum and Dad and they aren't scared any more.

As for the letters and numbers.  On the first band we put on, its all numbers on those bands and they are given to us by the Bird Banding Lab (BBL).  All the birds that get banded with BBL bands, have a number on their silver band that is just for them - its like having a name with numbers and a name that none one else has.  That's how folks can tell who a bird is and where it came from and who banded it.  The other band, the coloured band, we put on because we can't see the numbers on the BBL band, there are too many numbers and they are too small.  So we put a coloured band on with larger, easier to read numbers and letters and then we can read them on webcams, with binoculars or with spotting scopes (like a telescope).  A band with black on it means that the bird was hatched in a wild nest like ours.  An all red band means it was hatched in captivity and released into the wild.  As for the letters and numbers, they too are unique for each bird and because there are many more peregrines than there used to be, the Canadian Wildlife Service (who help us), they keep track of all the letters and numbers on the coloured bands and they send us bands when we need them and we tell them when we have put them on peregrine chicks.

As for the names, we hope to have them named by the end of the day - and we will post the names here on the Forum and on the CBC Manitoba Falcon Cam page as well.

And I'm very glad you could understand what I was trying to tell you - we forgot to bring a felt pen and a clipboard to right down what the gender of the chicks were/are like we did for the Radisson banding! 

Have a great summer Skye!
The Peregrine Chick

Kinderchick:
The Kinderchicklets did not have a chance to see the live banding of the Brandon chicks today at school because they had gone home for lunch by the time the banding began. So I went down to the Grade One classroom and welcomed a little girl who had been in my Kindergarten classroom last year to watch it with me. She has a great passion for birds and has said that she wants to do what you are doing, when she grows up, Tracy. I think you know who I am speaking about, TPC. ;)

We sat and ate our lunch in front of one of the classroom computers, while watching the banding. She was particularly intrigued with the plyers that Dr. Bob used to clamp the bands on with and thought that you were pretty lucky to be able to hold a peregrine falcon chick. She was, however, concerned that the chick's talons were pretty long and sharp and she wondered if your hands got poked at all. :-\

She was also interested in the alphabet letters and numbers on the bands and wanted to know what letters and numbers they were. This was her question... "I wonder which letters and numbers Tracy chose for the chicks and how does Tracy know what letters and numbers to choose?" She also wondered if you have thought of any names yet for these chicks.

As well, she really thought it was interesting when you used sign language to tell us if the chicks were boys or girls and she figured it out right away. She said "Great! Tracy is telling us that there is 1 girl and 2 boys!" She also thought it was really cool when you waved to us on the camera when you were all finished and of course, we waved back. LOL! :D

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