UND Tower - 2015 / Marv & Terminator

[Alison]

Malala will be coming home today!



Malala taking a bath on July 5; she is a beauty. photo by Dave Lambeth.

Grounded peregrine chick returning to Grand Forks after visit to Raptor Center

By Brad Dokken

A Grand Forks peregrine chick taken to The Raptor Center in St. Paul last week after being found unable to fly has gotten a clean bill of health and will be returned to Grand Forks on Wednesday to be released near the UND water tower where she was hatched.

Local raptor expert Tim Driscoll on Tuesday said Raptor Center staff ran tests on the young female named Malala and could find no signs of injury or disease. Driscoll, who banded the chick in June, dubbed her after Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who won a Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt aboard a school bus for defying the Taliban's ban on girls attending school.

Driscoll routinely names the peregrine chicks he bands. The UND water tower has the only peregrine nest in Grand Forks and is one of only two in the state; the other is in Fargo.

Malala was one of four peregrines—two males and two females—hatched this spring atop the UND water tower. Driscoll said she has been flying fine during trials at the Raptor Center.

"They wouldn't let her go if she didn't," Driscoll said. "They are anxious to get her back with her parents. She's not completely independent yet. She's off on her own hunting but probably still being fed by her parents while learning to hunt."

Driscoll said a local birder will meet a volunteer from the Raptor Center this morning in Alexandria, Minn., where Malala will switch vehicles for the remainder of the trip to Grand Forks. If all goes according to plan, she'll be released sometime midafternoon, he said.

Still a mystery, Driscoll said, is why Malala couldn't fly when she was found Aug. 3 by a police officer near the new UND Medical School building. Two peregrine chicks displayed similar symptoms in 2013, and Raptor Center staff found nothing wrong with either.

"I don't know what to think of that," Driscoll said.

It's possible, he said, that the chicks just became temporarily ill for some reason, similar to when humans catch a flu bug; humans with the flu don't feel much like moving either.

"It's almost like they're saying, 'I'm not going to fly, you can't make me,' " Driscoll said. "The Raptor Center said she is fine, and they're tough down there.

"I just hope we hear about this bird two years from now."

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/3815599-grounded-peregrine-chick-returning-grand-forks-after-visit-raptor-center

I hope everything will go well for Malala from now on. I also hope that her siblings will turn up.

[The Peregrine Chick]

I will be very surprised if the female chick became a meal for its siblings - not something peregrines typically do - particularly chicks with a parent as experienced as Terminator.  I only know of one report of "cannabalism" by peregrines and it occurred at a nest or a couple of nests along a section of shoreline on the Great Lakes.  They found that because of the lack of prey in the area, nests with more than two chicks were more likely to fail completely but that nests with two chicks could survive.  And in one of those nests, on one occasion, the researchers witnessed the chicks eating another chick.  Or at least that is how I remember the article - I'm going to have to go find it now in my records to be sure.

In any case, I will be very surprised if they find that something similar has happened at the Grand Forks site given the dearth of available prey and two experienced parents, one exceedingly so.

I've contacted Tim in Grand Forks so hopefully I will hear back soon ... or when they get up to the nestbox next ... or when someone spots Helen sitting pretty on a nearby building one morning ...

[Alison]

Just found another article, from August 4, which has some additional information.

Grand Forks peregrine chick taken to Raptor Center

By Brad Dokken

One of the four peregrine chicks hatched this spring atop the UND water tower was on Tuesday taken to the Raptor Center in St. Paul, and a second chick is believed to be dead.

Tim Driscoll, the Grand Forks raptor expert who banded the peregrines in June, said Malala, a female chick, was found Monday by the new UND Medical School building unable to fly, and he picked her up later that afternoon.

Driscoll named the bird after after Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who won a Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt aboard a school bus for defying the Taliban's ban on girls attending school.

On Tuesday, Driscoll drove Malala to Alexandria, Minn., where another driver picked up the chick for the second leg of the trip to St. Paul. Driscoll said the peregrine appeared to be favoring her right wing but was able to flap it.

She was "really frisky," despite being unable to fly, he said.

"She's aggressive," he said while en route to Alexandria, Minn. "She doesn't like Springsteen music or the Eagles," both of which apparently were playing on Driscoll's car stereo.

"Sometimes they have a strained wing or a bruised wing" and recover in a few days, he said.

Likely casualty

The news was even worse for Helen, the other female peregrine chick. Driscoll said he believes she is dead, because neither he nor other observers saw the chick in the nest box before the birds fledged about 10 days ago.

Helen is named after Helen Hamilton, the first woman to graduate from the UND School of Law.

"We were not seeing four babies in the nest box," Driscoll said. "We saw them eating a carcass that looked like a baby peregrine, so I'm hoping the bands are still in the box."

Driscoll said Helen is the smallest of the four chicks, so something might have gotten her, or she could have been injured in the nest or died from bad food. Being the smallest of the brood, she would be the most likely to succumb to natural hardships, he said.

"Normally, that would be the one that would lose out," Driscoll said.

The other two chicks—males named Lewis and Nelson—haven't been seen since they left the nest. Driscoll, who named the male chicks after Bob Lewis, a birding expert he cites as a mentor, and Nelson Mandela, the South African activist and politician, said it's normal for the chicks to gradually move farther and farther away from their nest.

"They hang out together for awhile and gradually separate," he said. "They're learning how to hunt all on their own, and then they—up and on their own—decide to migrate without their parents. That just amazes me that somehow these birds, without their parents, decide it's time to head south."

Driscoll said the parents, female Terminator and male Marv, will hang around the water tower until about Oct. 1 before migrating. They don't leave at the same time or travel together.

"They find each other at the nest box in the spring" if both survive the migration, he said. "They're hardwired to come back to the UND water tower."

Similar incidents

This isn't the first time a Grand Forks peregrine has made the trip to the Raptor Center. In September 2013, two siblings named Stella and George were taken to the facility just a couple of weeks apart because they were unable to fly. Staff never were able to diagnose an ailment, Driscoll said, but both birds recovered. Stella was returned to Grand Forks and released, and George was released somewhere in the Twin Cities, Driscoll said.

"We haven't heard from either one of them since, so that's not necessarily bad news or good new," he said.

Driscoll's trip to Alexandria took an added twist Tuesday when the Raptor Center called him on the road and asked if he could pick up an injured great horned owl near Fergus Falls, Minn. Driscoll was near Fergus Falls at the time, and so he followed directions to a small lake, where he found the owl perched on a rock along the shoreline.

He scooped it up with a net and hauled the owl to Alexandria with Malala, where it joined the peregrine for the ride to the Raptor Center.

"It was small and I'm guessing a male," Driscoll said. "I'm not sure of the problem, but he was real lethargic."

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/3810960-grand-forks-peregrine-chick-taken-raptor-center

[Alison]

This update, dated August 6, is the first news I have seen for some time about the Grand Forks peregrines.

Mystery: Grand Forks peregrine found unable to fly has no obvious ailments

By Brad Dokken

Malala, the Grand Forks peregrine falcon chick that was taken on Tuesday to the Raptor Center in St. Paul after being found unable to fly, doesn't appear to have anything seriously wrong with her.

Tim Driscoll, the Grand Forks raptor expert who on Tuesday drove Malala to Alexandria, Minn., to meet a volunteer who took the bird to the Raptor Center, said he received word Thursday that Raptor Center staff couldn't find anything wrong with the bird.

"They did not diagnose anything wrong, not even a bruised wing, which is better than I thought," Driscoll said. "She is not eating a whole lot, but that is not unusual. That usually takes a day or so. I think it's about as good as we could have hoped."

This isn't the first time a Grand Forks-hatched peregrine has turned up unable to fly. In September 2013, two chicks were taken to the Raptor Center a couple of weeks apart after displaying similar problems with flying. Both recovered and were released, and no ailments were diagnosed for either bird.

Driscoll named the peregrine after Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who won a Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt aboard a school bus for defying the Taliban's ban on girls attending school.

Malala is one of four peregrine chicks that were hatched this spring atop the UND water tower. The other female chick, Helen, is believed to be dead, and the two male chicks, Bob and Nelson, haven't been seen since leaving the nest a couple of weeks ago, Driscoll said.

Driscoll, who banded and named the chicks in June, named Helen after Helen Hamilton, the first woman to graduate from the UND School of Law. Bob is named after Bob Lewis, a birding expert Driscoll cites as a mentor, and Nelson is named after Nelson Mandela, the late South African politician and activist.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/3812841-mystery-grand-forks-peregrine-found-unable-fly-has-no-obvious-ailments

I hope Malala will be okay. I have not seen any updates on Helen, and did not know that she was believed to be dead. I wonder why they think that is the case. It is also not good news that Bob and Nelson have not been seen for a couple of weeks. I hope they are out there somewhere.  

[Alison]

A very short video of yesterday's banding:

https://www.facebook.com/GrandForksHerald/posts/10153355719710169

[The Peregrine Chick]

I was not asking for this to happen, I just thought it would be nice if people could watch.  

Sorry if I made is sound like you were RCF, it was just the perfect opportunity to explain why we don't and I used McKenzie Seeds as an example as we'll probably be banding them first this year!

Except my work schedule is busier than usual this year, I had thought about pitching the an idea of getting a group together to go down to Grand Forks to watch their banding.  If folks are interested, I can add it to the things we see about arranging for next year.  Particularly if Terminator is back again.

[RCF]

Certainly some locations lend themselves to public bandings - the UND nestsite in Grand Forks where the birds have to come down to be banded is an excellent example.  But most peregrines in North America are banded without spectators or spectacle.

And as much as I can fully appreciate how much everyone would like to see the chicks up close I can't really believe that you would want us to put them through additional stress.  

For example, in Brandon, we band the chicks about 100 feet away from their nestbox.  We retrieve them by ladder from their nestbox which is attached 20 feet up a wall, take them just inside the building so their parents aren't more agitated watching us handle their chicks and the chicks are more agitated responding to their parents' distress.  We band them which takes on average about 20 minutes for 4 chicks and we return them to the roof.  A public banding event would double or triple the time because as there are no working elevators in the building now, we would need to carry them downstairs and then to another venue because access to the building is restricted while waiting for renovations to begin.  So off to another venue, then we'd start the banding, let everyone look and take pictures and all the rest that goes along with any public event.  Then pack them up, back to McKenzie Seeds, back up 7 flights of stairs, then back up another flight to the roof for the release.

Add to this that we are constrained by the limits our our permits - both our provincial and federal permits.  In the US, the peregrine is not an at-risk species at the federal level, here in Canada they are.  Individual states have different regulations re handling, here in Manitoba we have the same and they are a designated endangered species.  And banders are further governed by rules of conduct regarding the handling of the birds they are banding.  The upshot of this, in very simple terms is, "handle with care".

And for all these reasons, the Project does not arrange public banding events.

I was not asking for this to happen, I just thought it would be nice if people could watch. 

[The Peregrine Chick]

Certainly some locations lend themselves to public bandings - the UND nestsite in Grand Forks where the birds have to come down to be banded is an excellent example.  But most peregrines in North America are banded without spectators or spectacle.

And as much as I can fully appreciate how much everyone would like to see the chicks up close I can't really believe that you would want us to put them through additional stress.  

For example, in Brandon, we band the chicks about 100 feet away from their nestbox.  We retrieve them by ladder from their nestbox which is attached 20 feet up a wall, take them just inside the building so their parents aren't more agitated watching us handle their chicks and the chicks are more agitated responding to their parents' distress.  We band them which takes on average about 20 minutes for 4 chicks and we return them to the roof.  A public banding event would double or triple the time because as there are no working elevators in the building now, we would need to carry them downstairs and then to another venue because access to the building is restricted while waiting for renovations to begin.  So off to another venue, then we'd start the banding, let everyone look and take pictures and all the rest that goes along with any public event.  Then pack them up, back to McKenzie Seeds, back up 7 flights of stairs, then back up another flight to the roof for the release.

Add to this that we are constrained by the limits our our permits - both our provincial and federal permits.  In the US, the peregrine is not an at-risk species at the federal level, here in Canada they are.  Individual states have different regulations re handling, here in Manitoba we have the same and they are a designated endangered species.  And banders are further governed by rules of conduct regarding the handling of the birds they are banding.  The upshot of this, in very simple terms is, "handle with care".

And for all these reasons, the Project does not arrange public banding events.

[bccs]

About 70 people gathered to watch regional raptor expert Tim Driscoll of Grand Forks band the four chicks, offspring of Terminator and Marv.

Wouldn't that be great if this could be done here in Manitoba. I bet there are a lot of people who would love to see a falcon up close.  Good exposure usually means more funding for the needs of the peregrines. It seems the more people attend there is a much better chance at getting donations. Also people get educated on these beautiful birds.

What a fabulous idea RCF. Not only are there lots of people that would like to see a peregrine up close, I bet they would pay to be there.
I know I would and what a fantastic way to support the Manitoba project.
Good thinking.

[RCF]

About 70 people gathered to watch regional raptor expert Tim Driscoll of Grand Forks band the four chicks, offspring of Terminator and Marv.

Wouldn't that be great if this could be done here in Manitoba. I bet there are a lot of people who would love to see a falcon up close.  Good exposure usually means more funding for the needs of the peregrines. It seems the more people attend there is a much better chance at getting donations. Also people get educated about these beautiful birds.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Beautiful chicks; the first photo is of Lewis.

Come from good stock 

[Alison]

An article friom the Grand Forks Herald about yesterday's banding:

Falcon chicks take center stage during Wednesday banding effort

By Brad Dokken

Four peregrine falcon chicks drew quite a crowd Wednesday afternoon below the UND water tower.

About 70 people gathered to watch regional raptor expert Tim Driscoll of Grand Forks band the four chicks, offspring of Terminator and Marv.

Terminator, a female hatched in 2006 in Brandon, Man., has been nesting in Grand Forks since 2008, the first two years on the Smiley water tower and since 2010 on the UND water tower. This year, she produced four chicks with Marv, a newcomer who first showed up on the local peregrine scene last year.

Four is a record hatch for Terminator, whose previous best was three, Driscoll said.

The four chicks—two males and two females—hitched a ride from their nest box high atop the UND water tower courtesy of climbers Cory Floden and Nate Reitan, who ascended the tower and carefully placed the birds in a pet carrier, which they lowered to the ground by rope.

Terminator, meanwhile, circled the 150-foot water tower none too happy about the disturbance, judging by her constant shrieks. Marv also showed up later after a midday hunting foray.

"She's done this eight times before," Driscoll said. "She started squawking the second we put the ladder on the tower."

Show and tell

Driscoll, along with Laura Bell of the University of Minnesota-Crookston and her husband, Jeff Bell, a UND graduate student, banded the four chicks—in the process delivering one of the coolest show-and-tell sessions any of the spectators are likely to see anytime soon.

Also helping was UMC student Tiffany Muellner.

Gerry Nies and his wife, Patsy, of Grand Forks, were among the crowd who gathered to watch the banding and pet the downy chicks. Patsy Nies said she's attended more than half a dozen previous banding events, while Gerry Nies was watching for the second time.

"It's absolutely fascinating to think they've come back from virtual extinction," he said.

Besides banding the chicks with bands on each leg, the crew took blood samples for genetic testing and avian malaria before returning the birds to the pet carrier and their rope-drawn ascent back to the nest box.

Driscoll said the chicks are about 22 days old and will remain in the nest another 20 days or so.

This year's names

In keeping with tradition, Driscoll also named the chicks, dubbing the females "Malala" after Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who won a Nobel Peace Prize after surviving an assassination attempt aboard a school bus for defying the Taliban's ban on girls attending school; and "Helen" for Helen Hamilton, the first woman to graduate from the UND School of Law.

The males he named "Lewis" after Bob Lewis, a birding expert Driscoll cites as a mentor; and "Nelson" after Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist and politician.

This year's Grand Forks peregrine hatch marks another positive step in the successful recovery of a species that was on the brink of extinction by the early 1970s. The banning of DDT and an effort to restore the species by raising captive birds and building nesting boxes paved the way for a recovery that culminated with the falcons' removal from the endangered species list in 1999.

Grand Forks and Fargo have the only two known nesting pairs of peregrine falcons in North Dakota. According to the Midwest Peregrine Society, Minnesota has more than 60 nests, mostly along the North Shore, the Twin Cities metro area and the Mississippi River bluffs in the southeast part of the state.

Driscoll says he's not surprised by the local interest in Grand Forks' nesting peregrines.

"Peregrines, they're the king," he said. "They fly fast, they get all the press—they're just cool. And they're right here in River City.

"If I'd have been an 8-year-old kid and they told me I could stand 5 feet away from a peregrine falcon, I'd have said, 'No way.'"

These days, it's an annual occurrence.

Photos by Eric Hylden. Beautiful chicks; the first photo is of Lewis.

 

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/3768645-falcon-chicks-take-center-stage-during-wednesday-banding-effort

[Alison]

From the Grand Forks Herald:

Wednesday: Public peregrine falcon banding event, 1 p.m., UND water tower.

Looking forward to seeing photos.

[The Peregrine Chick]

Got an email from Tim today and they will be banding Terminator's and Marv's chicks on June 17th.  I've asked them to send us photos (or links to a gallery) and/or any news stories on the banding.

[RCF]

Grand Forks peregrine nest has four chicks

Local bander and raptor expert Tim Driscoll said he has verified four peregrine chicks in the nest atop the UND water tower.


http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/3760677-grand-forks-peregrine-nest-has-four-chicks