Sad news out of Lincoln
29 Apr 2022
I received this message from Carri Friday morning.
"A peregrine was recovered last evening and brought to me by Animal Control. The bird was discovered on the roof of the business portion of the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel by a maintenance worker. I got the call from animal control around 6:30 and received the bird by 8:00. The peregrine was dead upon arrival and has been given to the UNL Diagnostic Lab this morning to be tested for HPAI. The falcon had no apparent injuries so now we wait for test results. Just so thankful that the raptor was discovered and that the individual cared enough to box the bird and seek getting it help through RCA."
She also told me that it was a young unbanded peregrine that was recovered. Of course I can not confirm for sure but chances are it was the female we had been seeing at the Capitol. I have not had a sighting of her on the cams since early Thursday morning. I will continue to monitor and watch for her but chances are they are one in the same. Fortunately as I posted earlier the male has made a couple appearances and seems ok for now.
Carri will keep me posted on the test results from UNL Diagnostic Lab.
Thanks to Carri for letting me know and keeping us informed of the results when they get them.
9 May 2022
Just a quick note to let you all know I just heard from Carri and our young female that was active at the Capitol and found deceased did test positive for HPAI. Fortunately, it appears our male is ok at this point, so hopefully he stays that way and as you have seen he has also been trying to entice a new unbanded adult female. I am still positive we will end up with a new couple at this box and have more families here in the future.
Thanks to RCF for passing along the information from BCAW and the Lincoln Peregrines Facebook page
That is the second resident female in Nebraska to die of HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza). Interestingly enough, looking at the tracking data posted by the various agencies - APHIS, CDC, USGS, etc - there are reports of other raptors confirmed to have died of HPAI but no peregrines. Same here in Canada and I haven't heard anything contrary to this on this side of the border. I wonder if it just a case of lots of results to confirm or if the prevalence of the disease in wild birds (mostly waterfowl) has dropped, or if there are other reporting rules ... hopefully we will eventually hear - and what kind of hit the peregrine population took this year.
Snowy Owls took a beating, interesting given they are mostly mammal hunters and they would have been heading north when waterfowl were heading north so I'm not sure of the overlap. Not the species I was expecting to see so frequently in the list - eagles, ravens, crows, yes, snowy owls, no. Red-tailed hawks & broad-winged hawks were also on the list - both are mostly mammal hunters like snowies but birds are included in their menu - but waterfowl and waterbirds aren't major contributors, if contributors at all. Curiouser and curiouser. It will take months if not years to hear more, but it will be interesting when it comes out - and hopefully more comes out and not just about peregrines.
