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a concern for me is, did a falconer work with her to hone her hunting skills. She will have none. And it is getting late in season, and it is doubtful if parents will take her back after such a long time.
I am not meaning to be negative. I am not . Just wondering. She was not out long before she went to rehab
Good luck Tiggy.
No a falconer did not work on her hunting skills but she has been hunting on her own. Peregrine chicks are hardwired to hunt without training from adults or falconers - that was one of the things that made hacking a viable recovery tool. So long as the chicks have access to food they do what chicks do - start chasing things, then catching things and then hunting things. And as they get better at hunting, they stop coming back for food even though it is free (aka no labour required) food.
In Tiggy's case, she likely was starting to hunt on her own when she was found - hacked birds start to disperse from the hacksite at about 30-33 days. Tiggy wouldn't have been dispersing, her parents could have been willing to keep feeding her for another 2-4 weeks but likely she was starting to hunt which could have contributed to the impaction she experienced. Could have been something she ate or caught something and ate too much. Impactions are uncommon so the chance of it being caused by the actions of an experienced parent seems unlikely - an young bird with her first kill, perhaps more likely.
As for Tiggy's recovery, the folks at Wildlife Haven helped her cast up the material causing the impaction, made sure there was no infection as a result of the impaction (there wasn't) and got her rehydrated (she was dehydrated when she arrived). Then they fed her and monitored her closely to make sure it didn't happen again. As she was recovering, they moved her to a flight cage so she could build up her strength, then to a bigger, flight cage to get her flying then they got her hunting live quail so they could be sure she would be able to feed herself. Or as sure as anyone can be - remember, chicks often disappear right after fledging and mostly folks assume they have come to some unknown tragic end only to find them on nestsites a couple of years later - Hurricane and Alley come easily to mind. When Tiggy was released, she had fully recovered from the impaction, she flying appropriately for her age (kinds of flight are age related) and she had been hunting her own food. And all with a minimum of human interaction which showed when we went to retrieve her - I think the only time she was happy to see humans was when she stepped out of the crate and that only lasted for 10, maybe 15, seconds and then she was having nothing to do with us. And she was no fonder of the folks at Wildlife Haven, which is sort of the point, ungrateful and unwilling to tolerate humans is exactly what we like to see in a peregrine - Jules and Joli come to mind now
Tiggy was 64-65 days old when she was picked up, 93-94 days old when she was re-released. She is healthy, flew very strongly and confidently and had been hunting on her own in care. All in all, better prepared than lots of our fledglings so we are optimistic that she will do no worse than her sibling Tuppence or her cousins Django, Armstrong, Ellington, Ella or Nina.
We hedged our bets a bit and released her at the edge of the West Winnipeg territory so she could go where she wished - back to the nestsite if her parents will allow (sometimes they get a wee bit territorial, even with their chicks, just before migration) or off along the rivers or wetlands or farm fields where waterfowl are starting to stage. We've been watching the cameras at the West Winnipeg nestsite and there has been no change in Ty's and Beatrix's behaviour - no being overly protective of the nestsite, no increase in visits and so far, only pair-bonding behaviour with each other (lots of bowing and talking). And at noon today, I'm 99% sure Tiggy turned up in the nestbox with food and Ty who arrived just a minute before didn't try to chase her off. Only got a glimpse of a corner of her right leg on the camera in the box but it was dark and she is the only surviving chick with a dark tape on her right leg. So all looks to going well - can't say that Ty or Beatrix will feed her, but they aren't chasing her away either - she stayed at the nestbox on the roof and on the wall edge for 55 minutes and no one turned up to harass her or drive her off.
Hopefully we'll catch sight of her a couple more times on-camera before the end of the season but if not, then we will have to wait and see if she turns up on a territory like her many aunts and uncles and cousins before her ...
