UND Tower - 2013 / unbanded male & Terminator

[Kinderchick]

What a great video! Very interesting to watch. The nest box itself was actually quite clean compared to the nest ledge. Unlike some nest boxes where there isn't a nearby ledge such as Orange, NSW, Aust. The 2 men sure scaled that tower quickly. LOL!

[dupre501]

Good video, and it doesn't require Flash to view it.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Love the video, wish I could have done that when we cleaned up at the West Winnipeg nestsite this year, the worst we have ever had but that was because the site was very protected from wind and weather.  However, with all the dust (dried falcon feces) and feathers (and legs and heads etc) and who knows what else, it might well have obscured the camera lens in the same way it kept obscuring our safety glasses!  

[RCF]

VIDEO: High-altitude housecleaning atop UND water tower

High-altitude housecleaning was the order of business Thursday afternoon when Cory Floden of rural East Grand Forks and firefighter Nate Reitan of Grand Forks scaled the UND water tower to clean up after peregrine falcons that nested atop the 150-foot structure this summer.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/277170/group/homepage/

[The Peregrine Chick]

Haven't heard yet if the Grand Forks folks have named their unbanded male yet, but it occurs to me that "Mr T" might not be a bad name 

I'm trying to track down a photo of the male for our records ...

[Pense]

Thanks for the explanation and the picture TPC.  Very interesting, I had no idea.

[The Peregrine Chick]

A brood patch is how birds transfer heat from their bodies to their eggs/chicks.  Its a patch of featherless skin on their breast/belly where there are lots of blood vessels near the surface of the skin so that the skin is much warmer and that is how their body heat to the eggs.  Its also part of why they rotate the eggs, maintaining an even baking temperature if you like.  It's not particularly visible on peregrines unless you look for it, but can be very visible on other birds and all birds have them.  Both male and female peregrines have them during the nesting season because they both incubate eggs/brood young. They are hard to see when you watch the peregrines because the feathers around cover the patch up.

Found this wild photo of a kestrel with a very visible brood patch.  I have never seen a brood patch this visible on a raptor but it is a good illustration of what/where the brood patch is (though location can vary on individual birds) ...


Source: Flight of the Peregrine blog

[Pense]

Sorry.....what's a brood patch?

And I agree with Kinderchick......TPC, you are a living, walking, breathing PF "family tree" expert.
Sounds like you could recite this in your sleep!

[Kinderchick]

Holy smokes! You are a living, walking, breathing PF "family tree" expert, TPC!

[The Peregrine Chick]

One of Terminator's 2011 chicks was injured (not seriously) in May in the St Paul area.  She had a brood patch and it was thought she might have lost a territorial fight but they couldn't determine where she might have been.  She was rehabbed and was re-released in June near Alexandria, Minnesota so that if she was in a territorial fight she would run afoul of her combatant again. 

Her name is Eve and she is Smiley's and Alice's sister.
Mintaka, Nemaha, Niobrara are fourth cousins
Jolicoeur and Sandy are her aunts
Zeus and Holly are her grandparents
Mufasa and Phoebe are her great grandparents
Pop and Maud are her great-great-grandparents

[RCF]

Here are the names for Terminator's three chicks

George ~ after Herald founder George Winship

Stella ~ in honor of Stella Fritzell, a longtime conservationist and state legislator from Grand Forks

Anson ~ for Anson Northrup, the first person to navigate the Red River by steamboat


More here from an article in the Grand Forks Herald

http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/267944/group/homepage/

Photo Gallery ~ http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/photogallery/id/1018/

[The Peregrine Chick]

Terminator's mate is unbanded and the folks in GF are thinking they may try to trap him to put bands on...

Wow! This must be quite the feat, trapping a peregrine falcon!   Is this done very often, TPC? As you have said, it will be interesting to see if the same male returns next year.

Often is relative I guess - compared with the number of peregrines out there, no.  Are there folks who do it relatively often, yes, but usually that is because it isn't just peregrines they are trapping - they will work with other species as well.

[Kinderchick]

Terminator's mate is unbanded and the folks in GF are thinking they may try to trap him to put bands on...

Wow! This must be quite the feat, trapping a peregrine falcon!   Is this done very often, TPC? As you have said, it will be interesting to see if the same male returns next year.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Terminator's mate is unbanded and the folks in GF are thinking they may try to trap him to put bands on.  Their bander is an exceptionally experienced raptor researcher so it will be interesting to see how they do.  And it will be nice to be able to know if the male comes back next year.  This will be Terminator's 3rd mate in Grand Forks.

Three chicks this year who were all banded this morning - 2 males and 1 female.  They did name them but I want to make sure I have the names spelled correct before I post them here. 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Was just returning a call from the folks down in Grand Forks who were looking for a bit of information on Smiley and Alice and they mentioned they were planning to band Terminator's 3 chicks today.  So, it being lunchtime I called them back and what do I hear in the background?  Chicks caterwauling  so I think I caught the GF folks while they were a) banding or b) retrieving chicks to band. Timing is everything obviously  !!  So I said I would call them back and I'll pass along what I find out about who is T2's mate this year and how the banding went.