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Alison:
Birds of a Feather: Peregine Falcon newest resident of SWHS Raptor Club
The Commonwealth Journal / 21 Oct 2009
Her likeness appears on the Coat of Arms of the Isle of Man. She’s been the mascot for the U.S. Air Force since 1959. She’s been named the official bird of the city of Chicago. Suzuki’s Hayabusa motorcycle, the company’s fastest model, is named for her.
She has every reason to hold her head high. But on Wednesday, as a small group gathered to greet her, she acted a bit like a nervous child — fidgeting and flapping, avoiding eye contact except for the occasional inquisitive, wide-eyed stare. She’s a Peregrine Falcon — extremely rare in these parts — and she’s been brought to Southwestern High School’s Raptor Rehabilitation facility to regain her strength and confidence so she can once again soar and swoop like the brave bird of prey she’s designed to be.
“They used to be very common in Kentucky, but the last ones died out in 1944,” explained Francis Carter, director of the SWHS Raptor program. In the 1970s, there was one around the Laurel Lake area ... but it died. I have that one stuffed in my room. ... They were extinct in this area of Kentucky for a while, but the Fish and Wildlife Department started bringing them back in the early 1990s.”
Familiar with the shape and mannerisms of the Peregrine Falcon, Carter believed she had spotted one a time or two in Pulaski County. “I thought I’d seen one in the area, but it was hard to know. ... They fly pretty fast,” she said.
Last weekend, Carter received a phone call from a man in Bronston who said he had found an injured hawk on the side of the road. Carter told the man to bring the bird to the Midway Veterinary Hospital the following day. There, Dr. Bruce Jasper checked the bird and determined that she likely didn’t have any major injuries.
“She was probably blown down by a car,” Carter guessed. “She was scuffed up above her nose and on one of her wings, and she wouldn’t fly. She was a little thin. They usually hide if they (are injured.)”
Dr. Jasper determined that the bird — which Carter identified not as a hawk, but as a Peregrine Falcon — “needed a little TLC and food, and then she could be released,” Carter said.
That’s where Southwestern High School came in. The falcon was brought to the Raptor Rehabilitation facility, where Carter and approximately 30 students will feed and tend to her for a few weeks until she’s ready to begin caring for herself again.
“The kids had never seen (a Peregrine Falcon) before, so they didn’t know what it was,” Carter said, adding that they “got excited” when they learned they had the opportunity to care for such a rare bird. I’ve been involved in raptor rehabilitation for almost 25 years, and this is the first one I’ve ever gotten,” she said.
When the Fish and Wildlife Department began re-populating Kentucky with Peregrine Falcons, they tagged the birds they released. This falcon wasn’t tagged, leading Carter to believe that she is either “a production of the pairs (released by Fish and Wildlife) in the state or she was blown in with a storm.”
While Peregrines are rare in Kentucky, they’re more common in areas north and west of here. Students in the raptor program have named the falcon Artemis — after the goddess of the hunt and forest.
“She’s very bright and alert,” Carter said. “Yesterday she ate 180 grams of bird of prey diet.”
The rehabilitation facility receives deliveries of 1,000 pounds of “bird of prey diet” at a time, Carter said. The food contains vitamins, bone, hair, and other animal parts on which birds of prey would normally feed. If Artemis were free, she would feed on small animals, such as squirrels, rabbits, and ducks, Carter said. Peregrine Falcons swoop down on their prey at speeds of nearly 200 m.p.h., “punching” them with their clenched claws and then snapping their necks with their beaks.
While the students are enjoying bonding with the mighty bird of prey, they’re looking forward to the day when she’ll be healthy enough to live up to her name. Carter wants local residents to know that it’s possible that more Peregrine Falcons are in the area.
“Please don’t shoot them,” she begged, adding that finding one is nearly as rare as finding a Bald Eagle.
http://www.somerset-kentucky.com/local/local_story_294210549.html
kittenface:
Well doing like TPC and trying B instead I found all this
2006 {B/04}
Falcon Name: Chase
FWS Band: 2206-72066
Color Band:
Hatch Site: First National Bank, Lima
Hatch Date:
Male Parent FWS Band:
Female Parent FWS Band:
Comments:
2006 {B/24}
Falcon Name: Bubba
FWS Band: 2206-84538
Color Band:
Hatch Site: WPL Edgewater Generating Station, Sheboygan
Hatch Date:
Male Parent FWS Band:
Female Parent FWS Band: E/*D
Comments:
2006 {B/34}
Falcon Name: Todd
FWS Band: 2206-84531
Color Band:
Hatch Site: Cargill Malt Complex, Jefferson
Hatch Date:
Male Parent FWS Band:
Female Parent FWS Band: 82/A b/g
Comments:
2007 {B/44} This one could be checked into maybe what with the father being B/G band
Falcon Name: Irving
FWS Band: 2206-84630
Color Band:
Hatch Site: Uptown Theatre, Chicago
Hatch Date: 5/1/2007 0:00:00
Male Parent FWS Band: b/g G/G
Female Parent FWS Band: *4/H
Comments: Recovered with broken wing after a month after fledging. 8/30/07 in rehab at SOAR.
2007 {B/54}
Falcon Name: Clark
FWS Band: 2206-84638
Color Band:
Hatch Site: 5821 N. Broadway, Irving Park, Chicago
Hatch Date:
Male Parent FWS Band:
Female Parent FWS Band: b/g 5/*P
Comments:
Alison:
Falcons inhabit nesting box built by 4-Her
source: unknown / June 2009
High above Winona, atop a Bay State Milling Co. building on Second Street, live the fruits of Maggie Lubinski's childhood labor and a symbol of a long recovery for a once near-extinct bird. Three yet-to-be named peregrine falcon chicks, a male and two females, fill a nesting box Lubinski made when she was 13. The nesting pair - a female named Chicklet and an unnamed male - are the first documented falcon residents in the city of Winona.
The Bay State falcon family is in many ways a triumphant symbol of a recovery effort now transitioning to preservation. Peregrine falcons are one of the great success stories of the Endangered Species Act and efforts by environmental groups. Once nearly eradicated in North America by pesticide use, the falcons have returned with a vengeance.
"(Peregrine falcons) are the conservation achievement of the century," Bob Anderson of the Decorah, Iowa, based Raptor Resource Project.
Lubinski built two falcon boxes in 2001 when she was in eighth grade for a 4-H project, and Anderson and his crew placed the boxes on the buildings. Falcons have temporarily stayed there, off and on, but never made a home. Over the years, Lubinski and her father, Rick Lubinski, who works at Bay State Milling, checked the sites and never spotted chicks. Maggie nearly gave up hope. She's 21 now, a student at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Then earlier this year a falcon family came. Rick Lubinski spotted the pair, and Maggie contacted Anderson.
"I didn't believe it at first," Lubinski said.
The falcons were once on the brink of extinction in the United States. Insecticides, most notably DDT, destroyed some populations by thinning egg shells, causing fewer falcons to hatch. Only several hundred pairs existed in North America, and the falcons all but disappeared from the region.
Recovery efforts began in the 1980s when captive birds were released into the wild. Once found primarily on high natural perches, including bluff faces and rock cliffs, much of the falcon's recovery has been due to their adaptation to urban and industrial settings. Falcons have found new homes at powerplant smokestacks, skyscrapers and now the Bay State Milling building. The bird was delisted from the federal endangered species list in 1999 but remained on the Wisconsin endangered list and the threatened species list in Minnesota.
Anderson credits the collaboration between conservation groups like the Raptor Resource Project and industry, particularly power companies, for the falcon's recovery. If not for the help of those companies, which placed falcon boxes like Lubinski's at their plants, the falcon would still be endangered, he said.
The total number of falcons in Minnesota and Wisconsin won't be known until tagging efforts such as Anderson's are done this year, but if the figures are anything like last year's, falcon fans should be encouraged. In 2008, 33 pairs hatched 93 young in Minnesota, while 28 pairs nested in Wisconsin, according to Department of Natural Resource officials in both states. The number of falcons has increased in the region nearly every year, according to DNR officials.
"We can safely say (the Minnesota falcon) population has recovered," said Lori Naumann, spokeswoman for the Minnesota DNR's Nongame Wildlife Program.
Tuesday was a reunion for Lubinski and members of the Raptor Resource Project. There were hugs and hellos and comments about how Lubinski had grown. She hadn't seen them since she joined them to tag chicks at an Alma, Wis., site several years after they placed her boxes. A crowd of Lubinski's family, Bay State Milling employees and curious onlookers watched as Anderson banded the chicks.
The month-old chicks will be named by Anderson. At least one will be named Maggie, he said
Follow-ups:
Their three chicks are Maggie (black/red 85/D), Anne (black/red 86/D) and Ricker (male - black/green H/15).
On Sept 13, 2009 Charles DeWitt photographed a Peregrine with leg bands. The right leg had a purple band. The left leg had two bands, the top was Black with white numbers 86 and the bottom was red with white letter D. The location was the Muskegon County Wastewater System in Muskegon, Michigan.
The response from the Raptor Resource Project was:
Mr. DeWitt photographed one of the birds we banded in Winona, at Bay State Milling. What a flight! If 86/D (Anne) had to get in a car and drive, it would be a 498 mile trip, although in a car, she couldn't fly across the lake.
Anne in Muskegon:
The Peregrine Chick:
Thanks for the links, the large photos helped to see the juvenile characteristics (vertical stripes on breast). Not old enough to breed I would agree, but given the white and black/dark slate grey on the bird's back, its not a 2009 hatch. Some birds retain the vertical stripes longer than others, not many to my knowledge, but your bird is just too white on the belly and too dark on the back to be 2009 - 2008 probably, I'd be surprised if earlier, those stripes should be gone ....
let me know what you find out !!
Alison:
Thank you for the response, TPC! I reduced the photos to post here, and looking at them now I realize that the markings are not really visible. The originals are much larger, and in them the bird looks to me like a juvie. I've uploaded them to Flickr at their full size (click on "all sizes" to see the large size):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/43115701@N08/3973463228/in/photostream/
I had also tried searching for all possible band combinations. It's a good idea to check with the CPF, so I will do that. I thought I might also check with the DEC in New York State, since they use black/green bands in some cases, with silver USFWS bands.
The original request for help with I.D. was posted by my namesake in Indiana, as a comment to a post in the Imprints section of the Rochester site:
http://rfalconcam.com/imprinting/?p=833#comments
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