Smiley Tower - 2009 / Terminator & Roosevelt

[maggieblue]

Dave from Grand Forks just notified me that they have had some travelling peregrines visiting the Smiley Tower in Grand Forks over the last couple of weeks.  Here's what he said ...

Thanks for the details! Smiley Face water tower is checked more than once each day and so we can keep pretty good track of the comings and goings of Peregrines. Over the last five years or so we have learned that Peregrines really like Smiley. This was the case even before a nest box was placed there.  Bear and Terminator have not returned yet. Bear appeared last year on about Mar 31/Apr 1. Terminator about Apr 9. I thought Bear would have returned already, but migration is really behind for all sorts of species. Hurricane is the 3rd peregrine to appear this year. Image attached. Today he seems to just be hanging out there. On Apr 4 and 5, we had Roosevelt, a male from Fargo raised in 2007. The 1st peregrine was (we think) a female, Mar 23-24. She looked a lot like Terminator and I thought I could wait for better light to try to  get a read on the band. Should have tried earlier. We think she was banded.  Smiley is safe this year so long as a pair of Peregrines claim it. It seems likely it will be taken down in the Fall.

Hurricane's photo is startlingly like one of the Terminator photos from last year - check out the 2009 Peregrines & 2008 Peregrines Galleries

Oh,oh,oh|  How wonderful to know that Hurricane is O.K.    And to see a picture of him in the photo gallery.    Here's hoping for more sightings.  Wouldn't it be great if he headed back to his birthplace, away of course from the territory of mom and dad and the West Winnipeg pair?

[The Peregrine Chick]

Dave from Grand Forks just notified me that they have had some travelling peregrines visiting the Smiley Tower in Grand Forks over the last couple of weeks.  Here's what he said ...

Thanks for the details! Smiley Face water tower is checked more than once each day and so we can keep pretty good track of the comings and goings of Peregrines. Over the last five years or so we have learned that Peregrines really like Smiley. This was the case even before a nest box was placed there.  Bear and Terminator have not returned yet. Bear appeared last year on about Mar 31/Apr 1. Terminator about Apr 9. I thought Bear would have returned already, but migration is really behind for all sorts of species. Hurricane is the 3rd peregrine to appear this year. Image attached. Today he seems to just be hanging out there. On Apr 4 and 5, we had Roosevelt, a male from Fargo raised in 2007. The 1st peregrine was (we think) a female, Mar 23-24. She looked a lot like Terminator and I thought I could wait for better light to try to  get a read on the band. Should have tried earlier. We think she was banded.  Smiley is safe this year so long as a pair of Peregrines claim it. It seems likely it will be taken down in the Fall.


Hurricane's photo is startlingly like one of the Terminator photos from last year - check out the 2009 Peregrines & 2008 Peregrines Galleries

[The Peregrine Chick]

There is an error in this article - Terminator received her band from us (Manitoba Peregrine Project) when she was just over 3 weeks old.  She was banded in Brandon in 2006 and is the offspring of Holly (from Brandon) and Zeus (from Brandon).  Just to keep the records straight.

If it is indeed Terminator, this will be her second year nesting in Grand Forks and only the second time (I believe) that Grand Forks has had nesting peregrines.  They are still waiting for the/a male to turn up.

[Alison]

I'm not quite sure where to post this. It would seem that Terminator has returned to Grand Forks.

From an article in the Grand Forks Herald this week:

Peregrine lands at 'Smiley'

A banded peregrine falcon showed up Monday at the Smiley water tower in Grand Forks, suggesting a pair of the birds that nested on the tower last year is planning another go-round this year.

Tim Driscoll, a UND professor and local birding enthusiast, said he'd been looking for peregrines on the tower the past two weeks. He saw a lone peregrine about 10 a.m. Monday and reported the sighting on the Grand Cities Bird Club's e-mail list.

Driscoll, who returned for another look at the peregrine Monday afternoon, said he's almost positive the bird is "Terminator," the female that nested last summer on the Smiley tower.

"It sounds goofy, but I can almost recognize her from last year," he said.

Driscoll said the peregrine is hanging out in a nest box installed on the tower in 2005. A dark-colored band on one leg is consistent with the band Terminator received last year in Grand Forks, Driscoll said, but he hasn't yet been able to read the band number for a positive ID.

The hope, he said, is that "Bear," the male that mated with her last year, won't be far behind. Peregrines will choose the same mate each year, if possible, Driscoll said, but they don't migrate together either to or from their wintering grounds in South America.

Bear and Terminator made news last summer in Grand Forks when they nested on the tower. The birds were the first peregrines to nest in Grand Forks, producing four eggs and successfully fledging a baby. Dubbed "Ozzie" by local birders, the young peregrine was just learning to fly when it flew into an electric wire in mid-July and died.