ME / BRI - 2009-16

[Kinderchick]

...Latest reports on "Little Sumo" is that he is now flying and progressing everyday.

That's good news!

[Linder]

Big Sumo & Bree now have 4 eggs to look after. Latest reports on "Little Sumo" is that he is now flying and progressing everyday.

[carly]

Egg #3 

[The Peregrine Chick]

A friend at work passed this along ....

Peregrine falcon lays first egg of season

GORHAM — The BioDiversity Research Institute announced that its webcam captured a peregrine falcon laying its first egg of the season at about 8:45 a.m. today.

“We have been keeping a diligent watch as the female, who joined the male at the nest a few days ago, began settling in,” said Patrick Keenan, the institute's outreach director and coordinator, in a statement.  “We can expect the egg to hatch in about 34 days; this is the third successful nesting of peregrine falcons at this site that we’ve been able to capture on live streaming video.”

Visitors to the institute's website can watch the daily nesting activities of the falcons.

Two cameras, positioned nearly 100 feet off the ground and equipped with low light color vision, provide two perspectives of the nest – called a scrape because the falcon does not actually build a nest, but digs a depression in the gravel found on a high ledge, usually a cliff.

[carly]

Egg #2 just laid 

[birdcamfan]

My God I'm daft. I was reading the note above and thinking "Why are they calling him Feisty? That was Sumo!" I forgot that was just our special name for him. I'm glad he's doing okay. Thanks for the update.

[Moonstar]

I am so glad Sumo as we called him is doing better.  Thanks Carly for posting the story.

I still remember when he fell out of the nest box to the side and he could not get up and finally Mom pulled him up.  He was the cutest chick to watch.  I also liked how one of the adults would always spend the night with him.

[carly]

First egg this morning caught by SGB 

[carly]

Comment by Annie on February 6, 2011 at 9:01pm

It's been a while since I've posted on here but I do follow what's happening. It was such a sad thing to here about our Feisty. I as probably many of you wrote a note to Avian Haven so I could find out how to send some cash to help in their care for Feisty. I am going to try to include their address and a copy of their note to me in case some of you want to follow suit. They are a grand organization, I've only heard good about their facility so no matter how the money is used I'm sure it will be used for the good of all our avian friends in need.

Comment by Patrick C. Keenan on February 8, 2011 at 11:22am

Thanks for all the positive thoughts about Fiesty. Kit, yes it was a large bird at 28 days old and appeared to be a female.  I did speak to Avian Haven again yesterday. I gather that many others have as well. Diane did request that I act as an interface between her and many of you. I think she was a a little overwhelmed. She has agreed to keep me updated.  So far Fiesty has had surgery, appears to have some tissue damage on his underwing. Sadly Marc and Diane suspect that the bird will not be released back to the wild. They are beginning to search for possibilities for housing this bird.  I will keep you posted.

Comment by Patrick C. Keenan on February 10, 2011 at 9:22pm

This hopeful message from Diane at Avian Haven today, "Patrick, we are pleased to report good news on the wing wound. Yesterday for the first time, the wound looked BETTER than it had in the previous exam."  Benson, many thanks for sharing your photos and account of the event! What an amazing way to connect the dots and bring people together.I will keep you updated with word from Avian Haven.

Comment by Patrick C. Keenan on February 23, 2011 at 2:18pm

Feisty Fans: We apologize for having let so much time pass without an update – but there has been little to report other than slow but sure progress toward healing. The wound has closed to about 2/3 of its former size, with all the tissue now pink and healthy-looking. There has been no further sign of the necrosis we saw early on in the process. Every 2-3 days, our clinic manager, Shelley, puts the bird under anesthesia to clean and dress the wound. The first of the two attached photos shows Feisty cradled on Shelley’s arm, not quite awake after today’s procedure. The second, taken a few minutes later, shows the wound area covered with a hydrocolloid dressing. Feathers had been plucked away from the wound site to keep the area sterile – but don’t worry, they’ll grow back! We expect to send the next update around the first of March.

Patrick and Feisty Fans -- we are happy to report that the wing wound has healed to a point of no longer needing to be bandaged. Overall, he continues to do very well, and now that the bandages are off, he’s able to engage in some new activities -- he took a very exuberant bath over the weekend! We’ve started the paperwork needed to secure his new home, and will keep you posted as that develops.

[carly]

2011 NESTING SEASON

Remember little Sumo, otherwise known as 'feisty'.  Well Macintosh posted this news on BCAW and I wanted to share with you all.  First, turns out 'she' is a 'he' and he's been found injured and may not fly again.  I'll just copy and past what mac pulled over from their boards that has been reported by the PM for that site - Patrick.

The photos are located here: http://briloon.ning.com/group/peregrinecam/forum/topics/2009-year-of-the-feisty

I have some interesting but saddening news. Most everyone will remember the falcon chick from 2009. It was the only chick to hatch out of four eggs. The bird was fondly called Feisty. On May 28, 2009 Judy Camuso and I banded this chick with a colored (green and black) band that was coded with a 40/U.

The good news is that this bird is alive. The bad news is that this bird was injured and unable to fly and is now located at Avian Haven, a wildlife rehabilitation facility in Freedom, ME. Apparently the falcon which is now in its third year flew into a building on Jan. 27th and after not moving for an entire day a local certified wildlife rehabilitator brought the bird to Avian Haven. "Fiesty" is alert and appears healthy but is not flying due to a severely damaged wing. I will keep all informed here when I get additional updates. Have a great day everyone.

Comment by Benson Gray on February 9, 2011 at 5:13pm I found Feisty after his injury but didn't actually see his impact so can't provide an true eyewitness account. He showed up outside our corner conference room on the first floor of 50 Sewall Street in Portland, Maine during the morning of Thursday, January 27th as shown in the image below.

There was a small spot of blood on the window but it is not clear if that was the original impact point or if he had simply fallen there after hitting something else. There are several fences and trees in the area. The image at our corporate web site shows the overhang on the roof above and and this Google maps location shows the surrounding area. He rested there for about an hour then walked through the snow about thirty feet and climbed up a wire fence. I saw him spread his wings at one point and noticed the wound under his left one. The next image shows him on the fence late Friday morning.

We checked with a few local rescue services but didn’t find anyone who was interested although we didn't know what type of raptor it was at that point. I called David Sparks because he had rescued an owl from our chimney a few years ago. He suggested waiting to see if the bird would recover and confirmed that his usual fee would be charged to come and get it. The next image shows that Feisty had moved to a different part of the fence by Friday morning so the managing director of our organization agreed to pay David to come and get him.

David confirmed that it was a rare peregine falcon with a band and an unusual puncture on the bottom of the left wing. Diane Winn at Avian Haven has said "The peregrine is still with us and doing as well as could be expected given the severity of the wound (which was likely compromised by frost bite given how long he was out there before David retrieved him). There has been a significant die-back of tissue, to a point where it seems unlikely that the bird can recover the perfection of flight a peregrine needs to survive in the wild. We are working now on wound management, and have a very high-quality placement opportunity lined up in the likely event that he can’t be released. The peregrine was the star of a nestcam operated by BioDiversity Research Institute" which is how I found this blog. Now I only wish that we had acted sooner and hope that he pulls through.

[carly]

Glass buildings, concrete buildings, water..in this case they are under a bridge, major traffic above, predators, electrical wiring, bad storms...  It's a hard world for them and it's experience that teaches them how to survive.  

At our site it's the glass buildings that kill them.   In central Ontario we've pretty much destroyed any habitat they used to nest in, all the cliffs are either gone or eroded so now they  nest in the cities and there are many things here that are not part of their natural world.

The Maine chick died after he fledged, he was found on the side of the highway bridge I believe so I expect he was killed in traffic but that's just a guess.  They are under a bridge and that bridge actually lifts up to allow ships to sail through - they close traffic on both sides and the bridge raises up in the middle and the ship goes through and then it goes back down to being a road again.

[Kinderchick]

Very sad. Why is it so difficult for falcon chicks to survive the post-fledging period, carly?

[carly]

Maine falcon news: Posted by Mac over at BCAW

I do want to pass along some bad news. The Bird Banding Lab sent a note that one of the male falcon chicks banded on May 18th was found dead on June 3rd. Notably this coincides with comments by community members that a max of only three chicks were seen for a few days around that period. I will send any details when or if I get them. This is not uncommon. Birds do die and for falcons this post-fledging period of time is particularly difficult to survive through. I have read that survival estimates for falcon chicks through fledging to dispersal are typically very low, 15 to 40 percent.

[Alison]

I was concerned because I didn't see more than three juvies at any one time, even when a parent came in with food, but I did actually see all four for a few milliseconds. The fourth juvie was zipping around behind the box, and occasionally I could see the top of a fast-moving back for a moment.

 

 

[Alison]

They are doing a lot of wandering around: looks like a little male in the box.