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Alison:
20-year-old falcon reappears injured after yearlong absence - Part 2

Missing Peregrine Falcon found
WIVB TV / June 2009

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - A Peregrine Falcon missing from downtown for weeks has been found. Animal control officers discovered the bird alive but injured in Buffalo.

The SPCA traced its band number and discovered it once lived at the Statler Towers. The 19-year old bird has already outlasted the normal lifespan in the wild. If it recovers, it will remain in captivity.

The link below has a very short video:
http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/local/Missing_Peregrine_Falcon_found_20090610

What a beautiful face:

 

 

From TPC: He looks like Trey (seriously)

carly:
20-year-old falcon reappears injured after yearlong absence
The Buffalo News / June 2009

Like the legend of the Phoenix, a peregrine falcon that went missing after nesting for years at the Statler Towers has seemingly risen from the dead. The male bird was found Tuesday crossing a driveway in Amherst.

The 20-year-old male bird, which vanished one year ago, was thought to be dead because he is one of the oldest peregrine falcons ever recorded.

“He just disappeared. Gone without a trace,” said Connie M. Adams, a state Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist. “Instead, we find out that he had been evicted [by another bird].”

The falcon was picked up by Buffalo Animal Control, then passed on to the DEC. Currently, he is at Erie County SPCA headquarters in the Town of Tonawanda, where his health is being evaluated.  Joel Thomas, a wildlife administrator for the SPCA, said the bird has been grounded for a few days. Thomas also said the bird has a severe fracture on his left leg and may also have internal injuries.

“We don’t know if he was knocked out of the sky by his competition, but it definitely comes as a surprise that he is still alive,” Thomas said. “If he wound up dead in the cage tomorrow, I wouldn’t be shocked because he’s in real rough shape, beyond being attacked.”

Thomas said once SPCA officials diagnose the bird, they will decide if the falcon can survive surgery. If surgery is performed, it would take about one month for the bird to recover.  He also said the bird’s days in the wild are over — that he will probably live the rest of his life in an educational or research institution.

The falcon first appeared in downtown Buffalo in 1996 and began nesting at the Statler Tower in 1998. DEC officials estimate he fathered nearly 40 other falcons with three females in his 12 years on the scene.

“It’s truly amazing,” Adams said. “For him to be alive without a nest for this long is testament to how tough a bird he really is. He is a survivor.”

source: http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/northernsuburbs/story/698572.html

kittenface:
Peregrine Falcon, “James,” Shatters Record for Lifetime Reproductive Success

Like many bird species, peregrine falcons have high mortality in the first year, followed by lower mortality in subsequent years.  Median life expectancy of birds that reach their second year of life, is still only between 4 and 5 years.  Only 3% are expected to live beyond 10 years.  The grand old male peregrine falcon, nicknamed “James” by the public, is still breeding on the James River Bridge at the ripe old age of 19 years old.  He is now approaching a longevity record for peregrine falcons in the wild, believed to be 19 years, 3 months.

James was hatched in 1990 on the Leg-Mason building (Baltimore, MD).  He was first observed on the James River Bridge in 1992 and first bred there in 1993.  In his tenure on the bridge, he has produced a record 48 chicks to banding age.  Previous lifetime reproductive success across North America for both males and females range between 22 and 25 chicks.  Interestingly, James long time mate nicknamed Virginia was hatched by the same parents on the Leg-Mason building in 1989.  Though they were full siblings, they successfully bred at the site from 1994 through 2006.  Virginia disappeared in 2006 and was replaced by an unbanded female, dubbed Elizabeth the following year.  The story of James continues: on March 9 James and Elizabeth laid their first egg for 2009.

source: http://www.ccb-wm.org/news/2009_JanApr/james_peregrine_nineteen.htm

carly:
Old Age Peregrines Hatch Miracle Chick

video = http://www.youtube.com/v/LGFLjNUEPl4&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"

RANDY old birds of prey have successfully hatched a falcon chick almost a decade after they normally stop breeding.
The peregrine chick was born in the early hours of Monday morning after the mother and father – both in their mid twenties – had clutch of eggs.  Peregrine falcons rarely live to beyond 20 years old and it is unusual for them to breed after 17.

Animal workers were amazed the OAPs – Old Aged Peregrines – had bred for the first time in five years but assumed the eggs would be infertile. However they were left stunned when they heard the sound of cheeping coming from one of the clutch.  And to their amazement – and delight – a single chick hatched and is said to be “bold, healthy and happy”.



Now staff at Elite Falconry in Fife plan to rear the baby bird of prey on minced quail before returning it to its parents later this week. Barry Blyther, head falconer at the sanctuary near Kirkcaldy, said he was delighted about the eggs but more amazed when one hatched.

He said: “The birds lay a clutch of three eggs and we thought the eggs would be infertile. We were just pleased that they had produced eggs at all but after 10 or 12 days one of the eggs disappeared and we decided to take them in and incubate them. We started to suspect that one egg was fertile and on Sunday we heard one of the eggs cheeping and it turned out the chick had started the hatching process.  It hatched out sometime in the early hours of Monday. It is a strong, bold, healthy and happy chick and we are absolutely delighted.”



Barry said staff had given up hope of the pair breeding again after they had gone five years without mating.

He said: “A good age for a peregrine falcon is 17 or 18 years old and to have them still breeding at that age is doing really well. These ones are in their mid-twenties and although we have kept them in good condition the idea that they could produce eggs had passed from our minds, it was a real surprise from us.”

Barry is currently feeding the chick tiny amounts of minced quail but plans to return the chick to its rightful place as soon as possible.

“We want the chick to be parent reared but we will keep feeding it by hand until it is about four or five days old when we will return it to its parents. We don’t know what sex it is yet but by the time it is six or seven weeks old we should be able to tell by the size of the bird.”

Peregrine falcons are a protected species in the UK, with just 1,250 breeding pairs although numbers have increased since the 1970s and ‘80s when the bird was seriously endangered.

http://deadlinescotland.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/old-age-peregrines-hatch-miracle-chick-939/

carly:
Elizabetha Sets a New World Record

Autumn 2008

Elizabetha, an adult female peregrine that we tagged in Chile on 21 January 2008 as part of the Southern Cross Peregrine Project, migrated north to Baffin Island, Canada, to breed last summer. After raising her family, she began to migrate south again on 22 September, generally following the classic US east coast route. On 19 October, she was flying off the coast of New Jersey when she apparently caught the counter-clockwise storm system of Hurricane Omar. With solid tail winds, she flew south all the way to Palm Beach, Florida in a day, a distance of at least 954 miles and a knock-out world record. None of us had even dreamed that a peregrine could fly that far in a single day. This is yet another example of how satellite transmitters are revolutionizing our understanding of so many organisms worldwide.

As I write this bulletin (28 December), she is still migrating slowly south, having just arrived in Chile once again. She is demonstrating that some adult females perform an unanticipated “slow migration” south, long suspected but now confirmed for the species.

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