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News: Peregrines
The Peregrine Chick:
Endangered Peregrine Falcon Shot and Killed Near New Albany (11 Jan 2011)
Peregrine Falcon (not the bird shot)
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is seeking information involving the shooting and subsequent death of a 16 year old Peregrine Falcon. The bird was bred in captivity, tagged and released to the wild along with 15 other falcons near Evansville in 1994. Why someone would target this bird remains unclear, but migratory bird biologist John Castrale says it could have easily been a mistake.
“There are a number of birds that can be confused with Peregrines, especially Cooper’s Hawks, so my guess is someone was just taking a pop shot at a bird of prey,” said Castrale. “I don’t think they probably knew it was a Peregrine Falcon”.
In 1989 Indiana saw its first pair of nesting Peregrines in more than five decades. Two years later the Peregrine Falcon Reintroduction Program was started and since, their population in Indiana has risen to 130. The Peregrine Falcon is no longer a federally endangered species but remains on the state endangered species list and intentionally killing or disturbing ones nest could result in serious charges says DNR lieutenant Mark Farmer.
“If someone was apprehended or if enough proper cause was developed where we could file charges then those penalties could be pretty severe,” Farmer said.
Officials say the chances of finding the culprit are slim. Anyone with information on the shooting should call 800- TIP- IDNR or go to TIP.IN.gov
http://indianapublicmedia.org/news/endangered-peregrine-falcon-shot-killed-albany/#
New Albany is just across the river from Lexington, Kentucky.
As the story mentionned there were 14 birds hack released in 1994 in Evansville. The article does not identify who the bird is, if it is an Indiana breeding bird or even what gender the bird was. Now unless I have mis-read something, this looks to be math ...
reported as deceased prior to 2010:
PF Flyer (f) - died in 2001 due to a collision with a vehicle in Evansville, Indiana
River Ace (m) - died in 2002 in Cleves, Ohio
no reports since fledging from Evansville in 1994:
Dedalus (m), Merlin (m), Pajaro Bonita (f), Ranger (m), Rapptor (f), Speedy Gonzalez (m),
Stealth (m), Thunder (f), Yeager (m)
observed/identified post-fledging prior to 2000:
Echo (f) - seen in Michigan in 1995, then in Ohio in 1999
Phoenix (f) - failed nesting in Evansville, Indiana in 1995
Skyrunner (m) - seen in Evansville, Indiana in 1994
observed/identified post-fledging after 2000:
Freedom - nesting in Fort Wayne Indiana with Roosevelt since 1995
If anyone sees any updates in the news, please copy and post here - Thanks!
Alison:
Where are they now?
Injured falcon to become education bird
In the news: In late January a young peregrine falcon -- not often seen here -- was recovering after nearly dying from major injuries. No one can say exactly how it got hurt, though wildlife experts said it might have crashed into a car or other object in a high-speed dive. Peregrine falcons, endangered for years by the pesticide DDT, once had few nests east of the Mississippi but now migrate through the state on their way to South America.
Dr. Mark Gendzier, a veterinarian from St. Johns Veterinary Clinic, placed pins in the radius of the bird's left wing and repaired the tibiotarsus in its right leg. The bird was released to wildlife rehabilitator Melanie Stage of H.A.W.K.E., a nonprofit that cares for injured local wildlife. Stage did not expect the bird to recover enough to be released into the wild.
What the bird's doing now: Stage said it took six months for the bird, whose name is now Kenya, to totally heal from its injuries. Stage can't tell yet whether the young bird is male or female. The pins were removed from its wing and physical therapy helped get its leg working again.
"The leg had to be fused in a comfortable position because it was too bad to be fixed," she said. Stage said the bird can't fly any more but is in training to be an education bird.
"It wouldn't survive in the wild but it's doing great in captivity," she said. She said the bird, which gets regular meals of quail, can now sit on a glove or a perch and will soon be making the rounds.
http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2010-12-18/where-are-they-now
The Peregrine Chick:
Olympic sailing team recruit a peregrine falcon
The British Olympic sailing team have recruited a new teammate who they believe will help them secure gold… a peregrine falcon called Felix. Team bosses decided to bring in the bird in a bid to keep away noisy seagulls which disrupt the athlete's sleep and training. Seagulls squawking is said to have become a huge problem at the 2012 Olympic Games sailing venue in Dorset where the team train. Squad members are constantly having their routines disturbed by the squawking waking them up at 5am. Enter Felix, who now patrols the sky a couple of mornings per week… and had unsurprisingly put the the seagulls off the area.
Link to story (with photos): NewsLite - Olympic Sailing Team Recruit a Peregrine
The Peregrine Chick:
Moscow, Russia
Woman detained after falcons found in luggage
Customs officials seized eight rare falcons at the Moscow airport after a woman tried to smuggle the wrapped, boxed birds out of the country, the International Fund for Animal Welfare reported.
The gyrfalcons were found in two cartons being loaded into the hold of a plane bound for Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, the group said. The woman who checked the cartons as her luggage was detained and released pending a court appearance.
“At least 100 wild gyrfalcons are smuggled out of Russia each year, primarily driven by demand from the growing popularity of falconry in the Middle East,” said IFAW’s Russia director, Masha Vorontsova, in a statement.
The fast and powerful predator is the world's largest falcon. It breeds in arctic and subarctic regions and preys primarily on large birds, according to the Cornell University Lab of Ornithology.
They can command as much as $50,000 on the black market. Officials believe the birds seized at Sheremetyevo International Airport were captured in Russia’s Far East and transported through two security checkpoints and a customs inspection before being detected.
The birds are expected to survive and will reside at IFAW’s raptor rehabilitation center until they are ready to be released into the wild, likely sometime next month.
The gyrfalcon is listed in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red Book of endangered species and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species’ Appendix I. The latter designation, says IFAW, makes any commercial trade involving the birds illegal.
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/22/report-woman-detained-after-falcons-found-in-luggage/?hpt=Sbin
The eight gyrfalcons were swaddled in pillow cases and other cloth when customs officials discovered them at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport.
carly:
A Fishy Peregrine
WQED / 27 Sept 2010
As we all know, peregrine falcons eat only birds and they catch them in the air. Or do they?
Last Wednesday I received an email from Dan Yagusic, an excellent birder who watches the peregrines on the Allegheny River bridges. (He’s the one who first found Mary Cleo (Dori) at the 62nd Street Bridge. She now lives at Gulf Tower.)
Here’s what Dan saw at dusk on Tuesday, September 21:
Last evening at dusk I was passing Washington Landing’s Marina (Allegheny River) at a no wake speed in our boat. In the near darkness I spotted a large bird flying fast downriver. All of a sudden, directly across from me about five Mallards took flight squawking very loudly as they went. This bird (unidentified as of yet) started making repeated swooping turns down to the water, but appeared to be chasing nothing at all! I grabbed my binoculars at this point and lo and behold to my utter amazement it was a Peregrine Falcon!! I continued watching as this Peregrine made at least 20 passes over the water, each time rising 30 feet or so in the air before dropping down and dipping it’s talons into the water as if to make a splash. Running through my mind were the likes of “What the heck is this bird doing?” and “Just what is making him/her do this?” After who knows how many trips down to the water the Peregrine came up with a FISH in it’s talons. It proceeded to fly directly to the nearest tower where it immediately started eating its catch. Perhaps you or others know of this behavior in Peregrines, but in my limited experience I have never seen a Peregrine even attempt a shot at fishing. That sure did make my evening, let me tell you! Variety can be the spice of life, even for Peregrines??? — Dan Yagusic
Amazing!
I did some research and found two (only two!) references that said peregrines occasionally eat fish though one said they took them from ospreys. So what was going on here? Dr. Tony Bledsoe of the University of Pittsburgh’s Biological Sciences Department explained that our mid-latitude peregrines focus on birds but that peregrines occur nearly worldwide and are quite cosmopolitan. Right now peregrines from Canada and the Arctic are migrating south through Pittsburgh. Those birds travel to South America and have skills and tastes that our local birds never had to cultivate. If they know how to fish and the ducks aren’t cooperating, why not? Even so, it’s very unusual!
source: http://www.wqed.org/birdblog/2010/09/27/a-fishy-peregrine/
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