Peregrine banding event set for 2 p.m. Thursday below UND water tower
Brad Dokken, Grand Forks Herald / Tue, June 8, 2021
Jun. 8—A public banding event to band the peregrine falcon chicks hatched this year atop the UND water tower is set for 2 p.m. Thursday, June 10, below the water tower.
The public is welcome to attend the banding event, Tim Driscoll of the Urban Raptor Research Project, said in a posting to the Grand Cities Bird Club. A licensed bander, Driscoll has overseen the peregrine recovery work in Grand Forks since the falcons first began nesting locally in 2008.
As part of the event, climbers will ascend the tower to retrieve the peregrine nestlings from the nest box and lower the birds to the ground. At that point, Driscoll and an assistant will take a few measurements, band the chicks and name them. The climbers then will return the nestlings to the nest box on the water tower.
The nestlings are offspring of Marv, a male who has been breeding in Grand Forks since 2014, and an unbanded female. Banded in 2013 as a nestling in Fargo, Marv is named after Marv Bossart, a Fargo TV personality who died earlier that year.
Anyone who is not vaccinated is asked to wear a mask to Thursday's banding event, Driscoll said. The best place to park for anyone not affiliated with UND is the parking ramp near the intersection of University Avenue and Columbia Road.
