MN / Elk River - 2008-22

[bcbird]

What a beautiful love story video. Thanks for the link, kittenface.  
It made me teary to watch this "pre-chick flick."

[kittenface]

Very very long bonding session

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unveRF1-Eoo

[The Peregrine Chick]

Well done Mr GRE!

Wasn't sure how y'all were going to do without the Elk River cam to watch - it was the one everyone turned to when we lost the chicks in 2008 ...

[kittenface]

Just got this email about Great/Elk River

Hi Jannice and Mary Anne,

I see you have already received the word that our male falcon found a new mate! We are so excited.
The other good news is that the cam went back on about an hour ago. Feel free to spread the word!
Brenda thinks (based on the way the birds have been behaving) that we may see eggs in a week or two.

Thanks again for watching,
Jennifer

[Elaine L]

The camera is up and running, and Great River has provided a message about what happened here.  I hope we will see the male and his new mate, Dot, produce some eggs.

[The Peregrine Chick]

A little wait, some watching and just a smidgeon of luck and we could all be watching the Elk River cam again in a little while.

I think I'll wait a wee bit longer though until I put Dot's name on the subject line ... just so we don't jinx it. 

[Linder]

News from Elk River:

The male has attracted a female. They are engaging in courtship behavior.
The female is 2007 Dot (M56 blk/grn) from Black Dog, mother was Nora.

Apparently this was posted on the BCAW site from Brenda who is from GRE and was the person that searched for three days for the lost female. There also pictures of Dot showing her band numbers.

[Kinderchick]

Thanks for posting Jennifer's explanation as to the status of these eggs & the nest. Nice to hear what has happened and that an effort was made to attempt to rescue the eggs, but that it wasn't possible. Hope male finds a new mate, in due time. 

[bcbird]

Thanks to SkyGirlBlue and Kittenface for having Jennifer's thoughtful letter made available to our forum via Carly!
It's good to know the details, and even better to understand that this nest box is watched over by compassionate, dedicated people on site.
It sounds like the GRE people have some Phanatics on staff.  Yay!

[Cooper]

Yes, thank you Carly for the post. Very nice to hear of the dedication/caring of the folks at GRE.

[Pam]

Thanks for the post, Carly.

[msdolittle]

nice to get the scoop on the nest.    It was a very nice letter.

[carly]

SGB has had a response from Jennifer at GRE and she (Jennifer) agreed that SGB could post this explanation for all of Mom and Dad's fans and SGB and Kitten asked to post it here as well:

Thank you for your email regarding the Elk River peregrine falcons.

I can assure you that all of us at Great River Energy are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our female. She has been with us for four years and we considered her a part of our family. It is such fun to watch these little falcon families develop each year. We are so very sad that we cannot see that again this year.

One employee in particular keeps a very close eye on the falcons, monitoring their well being. When our female went missing last Friday morning, this employee – on their own personal time – spent much of the weekend searching the Elk River area for the missing falcon. We simply do not know what happened to the falcon. Sadly, we’re sure it was something tragic as that is the only thing that would keep her from returning to her eggs.

Once we determined that the female was not coming back we sprang into action. We wanted to do all that we could to help the male and those four precious eggs. Unfortunately, we were unable to obtain the proper permits needed to allow us to rescue the eggs. I can’t go into specifics as I do not want to point any fingers but, again, I can assure you that Great River Energy employees did all that we could to save those eggs.

I have been following some of the comments on the Bird Cams Around the World forum and realize that these birds mean a great deal to many people. I want to clarify that we did not attempt to remove the eggs and that the male falcon was not harmed in any way. He valiantly tried to incubate the eggs but in the end, he left the nest.

The decision to turn off our bird cam was not a financial one; there simply is nothing to see in the box at this time. We are hoping beyond hope that the male falcon (who has been with us for five years) will find another mate yet this year and return to the box to nest again. If that does happen we will turn on the cam.

We are dedicated to these peregrine falcons – that is why we set up the nesting box in the first place! We too hope they will return.

I hope I’ve cleared up a few of the unknowns for you and the other falcon watchers.

Best regards,
Jennifer

[The Peregrine Chick]

I am very disappointed here. I wish they wold give us the facts and not wishy washy. sorry for being candid but this is does not weigh right with me.

They could have put in dummy eggs. all sorts of possibilities.
Shut up now BEV

And maybe we will hear more.  It is possible that the eggs are being incubated and they are going to wait and see what happens.  Putting dummy eggs in the box when its just the male is hard to justify since he will keep putting his health at risk to keep incubating what he could believe are real eggs.  No one would want to continue to subject the bird to more physical stress.  It is very hard to tell what birds are going to do in cases like this.  They go off pattern.  When the biologists have a better idea of what he's going to do, if another female turns up,  if, if, if.

The last point to make is that just because there is a webcam doesn't mean that anyone is responsible to share all the details with the viewing public.  Elk River does provide some information on the goings on, but they aren't like the Columbus site or the CPF sites or even this site where we have chosen to share more details.  But its a double-edged sword, being more forthcoming is time-consuming and from time to time its hard to justify the problems that can arise. 

[bev.]

I am very disappointed here. I wish they wold give us the facts and not wishy washy. sorry for being candid but this is does not weigh right with me.

They could have put in dummy eggs. all sorts of possibilities.
Shut up now BEV