Manitoba Peregrines > UND, Grand Forks, North Dakota
UND Tower - 2017 / Marv & Terminator
Alison:
--- Quote from: The Peregrine Chick on March 25, 2017, 14:24 ---Got a call from the folks down in Grand Forks and they have confirmed that Terminator is back as of yesterday!
--- End quote ---
Thank you for the confirmation, TPC! Glad to know Terminator is back for her tenth year in Grand Forks.
dupre501:
;)
The Peregrine Chick:
Got a call from the folks down in Grand Forks and they have confirmed that Terminator is back as of yesterday!
Alison:
Another peregrine has arrived back in Grand Forks, and it may be Terminator.
Female falcon is latest peregrine to fly into Grand Forks
Pretty much right on schedule, there's a female peregrine falcon back in town vying for the affections of Marv, the male peregrine who returned to his love nest atop the UND water tower last week.
Tim Driscoll, the Grand Forks raptor expert and licensed bander who follows the annual comings and goings of the local peregrines closer than anyone, said he got a call Thursday morning from a UND employee who'd seen a smaller falcon fly into the nest box, followed by a larger bird that landed on the tower railing.
Female peregrines are larger than their male counterparts.
"I said, 'I'm on my way,' " Driscoll said.
Peregrine pairs don't migrate together but return to the same mating sites each spring.
Driscoll said it's too soon to say for sure whether the female is Terminator, the matriarch of the local peregrine clan since 2008 when falcons nested in Grand Forks for the first time. But he doesn't think it's Bristol, the female who last year flew into town before Terminator, fueling speculation of a love triangle in the making.
That possibility ended a few days later when Terminator returned. Within two days, Bristol was confirmed in downtown Winnipeg, where she hatched in 2015.
"I don't think it's Bristol because she was more cream-colored," Driscoll said. "I don't have a positive on the band yet, but she looks really comfortable and she's sitting on the railing, and Marv's in the nest box, and they seem to be fine with each other.
"I think it's Terminator, but I'm not as sure as I was about Marv," he added.
Driscoll confirmed Marv's identity earlier this week after local birder Dave Lambeth got a clear photograph of the leg bands. This will be the fourth breeding season for Marv, hatched in 2013 in Fargo and named after Fargo TV personality Marv Bossart, who died that spring.
Driscoll, who banded Marv, names the falcons he bands, saying it's easier to remember a name than a band number.
Thursday's gray, rainy conditions weren't conducive to getting clear photos, Driscoll said, but if his speculation is correct, Terminator's return would be her earliest ever.
She first showed up in Grand Forks on April 9, 2008, with subsequent first sightings April 10, 2009; March 27, 2010; April 7 or 8, 2012; March 26, 2012; March 26, 2013; April 6, 2014; March 29, 2015; and March 24, 2016.
"I really wish it would be Terminator, but if it's not Terminator, better somebody else than nobody," Driscoll said, adding he'll get a band number in the next day or so. "Females are larger, and there's no question this is a female. Terminator is large for a peregrine."
https://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/4239416-female-falcon-latest-peregrine-fly-grand-forks
I hope it's her, I hope it's her. :)
Alison:
Thank you for the reply, TPC!
Today there is confirmation that Marv has indeed returned to the Grand Forks nest box.
It’s official: The peregrine falcon that flew into town last week is Marv, the patriarch of Grand Forks’ peregrine clan the past couple of years.
Named after Marv Bossart, a Fargo TV personality who died in 2013, Marv was hatched that same year in Fargo and showed up in Grand Forks to mate the next spring.
Tim Driscoll, Grand Forks raptor expert and licensed bander, said avid birder Dave Lambeth got a photo of the peregrine perched on the UND water tower. The photo shows the bird’s leg bands, Driscoll said: black over red, and H over 72.
Photo by Dave Lambeth.
That’s Marv, alright. Driscoll banded and named Marv in 2013.
“It always takes a day or two” to confirm, Driscoll said. “Now we know for sure what we knew for sure.”
With Marv back in town, the wait for a mate resumes, Driscoll said. That could be Terminator, the first and only female to nest in Grand Forks since the inaugural hatch in 2008, or Bristol, a young female hatched in 2015 in Winnipeg who caused a bit of a stir last spring when she showed up in Grand Forks vying for Marv’s affections.
That didn’t sit well with Terminator when she returned, and Bristol within a day or two was reported back in Winnipeg.
“We’ll see what happens,” Driscoll said.
https://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/4238748-marv-peregrine-back-grand-forks
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