MN / Great Spirit Bluff - 2016-22

[GCG]

It appears that the jumper has once again jumped (fallen) from this nest on June 3rd. After seeing a FB post, I watched a video of the fall. Once from a distance and also a close up. After watching, I went to the site and from the chats, the remaining chick has also fallen. So much has happened at this amazing site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiUErODSKfo

On the link to the site, they are showing the banding.   

[GCG]

A video link to an interview with George Howe, the man who rescued the (jumper) chick. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XSHv79hso

[Jazzerkins]

Sure pulled a lot of fluff off the little one while rescuing.  I guess was trying to get a good hold to drag it back in.

[susha]

Wow!  Amazing!!  Thanks for sharing, GCG.

It's so comical to watch her try to sit on him after she rescues him!   

[GCG]

Another Facebook post AND video of the action prior to banding yesterday. Amazing!

"Yesterday we witnessed some “Great Performances” and that seems to be an understatement reflecting on the amazing rescue jobs of Michelle pulling her two young back into the nest box (https://youtu.be/dL-sAa9pqd8). We have not witnessed this on camera before, but many peregrine falcon eyrie choices are small spaces of only a couple square feet and that obviously has led to raptor parenting skills being honed when it comes to curious and exploring young. The team effort to rescue and band drew on years of experience in falconry reintroduction and monitoring techniques taught and shared by our founder Bob Anderson who, in that sense, was with us yesterday from developing a plan, to execution.
The RRP falcon team includes the multiple talents of Amy Ries and Dave Kester who both did amazing work preparing and implementing a plan. Amy managed the inspection, banding and treatment of the two young males (Hamilton and Burr-D) and Dave’s experience handling falcons confirmed good options for nest box and falcon treatment. We now fondly refer to Amy as “Dr. Quinn…medicine woman” and we can only hope that this wave of insect pests at the nest box has been managed long enough for our young falcons to fledge more leisurely. We are learning that in the real world, many falcon young don’t have a textbook fledge as we would like to imagine.
Thanks to our many volunteers and helpers – they include dedicated landowners like George Howe who twice now has joined the RRP search and rescue team to scale the treacherous talus slope below the bluff to retrieve prematurely fledged falcons. His recovery of Burr-D and story of transporting him back up in a Teletubby pillowcase is amazing and allowed us to seemingly pull off a “magic act” of pulling one falcon out of the box and replacing it with two! I’m very proud of the RRP team and appreciative of your kind words, encouragement, and support of our work."
John

[The Peregrine Chick]

My sincere thanks RCF for the link. Next time I will know to copy and paste the link. TPC, I follow this nest site mainly on Facebook because the individual posts are not informative. Lots of chit chat between the watchers.

Makes perfect sense GCG! 

The reason I asked about Facebook or not is that with Facebook, some sites you need to be a facebooker yourself in order to access - RCF's link is exactly the way to post the link for that. (thx RCF)  If the link were to something else, you may well be able to link directly to the photo so long as the source/photo credit is included with the photo.

If you come across something like that, pm me and I can walk you through that ...

Thanks for keeping us updated on this site - interesting goings-on there ...

[GCG]

My sincere thanks RCF for the link. Next time I will know to copy and paste the link. TPC, I follow this nest site mainly on Facebook because the individual posts are not informative. Lots of chit chat between the watchers.

[RCF]

Great news from the GSB nest. The jumper has been rescued and both were banded.

"John Howe has repelled down Great Spirit Bluff and is now cleaning the nest box after retrieving the remaining eyas. George Howe, hero of the search and rescue team, found the little jumper and brought it back up the bluff. Two eyasses banded today. Both males, names are Hamilton and Burr-d. Great work by the whole team, Amy Ries, David Kester, George Howe, and John Howe." There were photos but I do not know how to post here.

Here is a link to the photos   https://www.facebook.com/RaptorResourceProject/posts/1358936637476285

[The Peregrine Chick]

There were photos but I do not know how to post here.

Are the photos on Facebook or another site? I can PM you with instructions once I know 

[GCG]

Great news from the GSB nest. The jumper has been rescued and both were banded.

"John Howe has repelled down Great Spirit Bluff and is now cleaning the nest box after retrieving the remaining eyas. George Howe, hero of the search and rescue team, found the little jumper and brought it back up the bluff. Two eyasses banded today. Both males, names are Hamilton and Burr-d. Great work by the whole team, Amy Ries, David Kester, George Howe, and John Howe." There were photos but I do not know how to post here.

[GCG]

The banding scheduled for today has been delayed because one of the two remaining chicks is missing from the nest box. They following is from their Facebook timeline 

http://www.ustream.tv/greatspiritblufffalcons

Great Spirit Bluff Peregrine Falcons
"As viewers have seen, of our two remaining eyasses at GSB, both have gone out of their nest box again this morning. One has fallen, and we suspect that the parents are trying to locate and care for it as we have seen in the past. The other eyass has escaped a couple of times also and in a remarkable display we have seen Michelle turn into super mom mode, pulling on the chick's wing and leg to pull it back in to safety.
RRP had planned for scheduled banding today and we have a few members of our team on site and others arriving as this is posted. We will keep you informed as more information is received, and would like you all to keep good thoughts for our climbing team and the young eyasses.
Raptor Resource Project is considering all options for the remaining eyases at Great Spirit Bluff now that one has jumped from the box. Our permits do not allow us to preemptively collect young birds from nests; as watchers know, birds face and overcome many dangers in their lives and we simply can't protect them from everything. We have located a potential foster box and are weighing treating the current box over attempting relocation, which comes with its own set of dangers and challenges. We will keep everyone posted. Thank you!"

[GCG]

This update was posted on their Facebook page.

"We went to Great Spirit Bluff on May 24 to retrieve the carcasses of two peregrine falcon nestlings that had perished during a black fly swarm. After John retrieved them and sprayed the box with a mixture of essential oils that to repel the flies, we conducted an examination and found:
1: No black flies or signs of black flies (red marks, stings, lesions, body parts) in the falcons’ mouths, nares, or nasal passages. The falcons’ nasal passages did not look swollen or irritated.
2: The falcons had red lesions or bite marks along the edges of their wings, around their eyes, in the skin just above and behind their ceres, and below their crops.
3: Although the falcons were starting to decompose, they appeared to be in good body shape otherwise. They were starting to feather out nicely and their wings, talons, and feet looked great.
The two most likely causes of death are either blocked airways or blood poisoning. In scenario one, black flies swarmed into the nestlings’ nares and mouth and blocked their airways. They suffocated, died, and cooled. Once they reached ambient temperature, the flies left.
In scenario two, the falcons died of blood poisoning. Lori Arent, a veterinarian and clinic manager at the University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center, told us that young raptors are especially susceptible to black fly infestations. A nestling raptor’s immune system is not robust enough to cope with blood parasites transmitted by black fly bites, and these falcons had many black fly bites. The relationship between black fly bites and nestling raptor death has been well-documented in several places. A paper titled “Rapid Nestling Mortality in Arctic Peregrine Falcons Due to the Biting Effects of Black Flies” documented rapid nestling mortality in Arctic peregrine falcons in 2012 and 2013. While their falcons suffered many more bites than ours, the description of the damage and the deaths were very similar.
We captured one black fly for identification. We did not want to disturb the two living falcons – it was cold and getting dark by the time we arrived to remove their siblings – but we will look them over for bites and swelling when we band them on Sunday. We kept one dead falcon and will take it to the University of Minnesota for autopsy."   

[The Peregrine Chick]

Thankfully black flies are not an issue at our nests!!

[GCG]

At this site, four eggs were laid by Michelle. All eggs/chicks hatched but sadly, two have succumbed to  airways clogged by insects. This was posted on their Facebook timeline.

Raptor Resource Project
May 23 at 7:49am ·
"We are aware of the two dead eyass falcons at Great Spirit Bluff and are planning a recovery tomorrow, weather permitting. We believe that insects may have clogged their airways, causing them to suffocate, but we can't know for sure unless we recover the carcasses. We will also try to capture some of the insects while we are down there. We've called them black flies and buffalo gnats, but black flies come in roughly 30 species in Minnesota and it would be helpful to know what we are dealing with."
Some information on black flies:
Perdue University: This page includes life cycle information and a broad discussion about black flies - https://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publichea…/…/blackfly.html
University of Minnesota: Black flies in Minnesota - https://www.extension.umn.edu/gar…/insects/find/black-flies/
We've had black fly problems here in the past, although we've never seen this kind of problem this early in the year. For more on that, read this blog: https://raptorresource.blogspot.com/…/black-flies-and-falcons…

They have removed the two little ones and sprayed. As I watch the live cams, the remaining chicks are alone and grooming. 

[Alison]

Congratulations to Michelle and Newman on their first egg, laid during the night.

The egg this morning:



Video from the site:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/101487405