Bird Cams Around the World

LA LA LA LA, DON'T WANT TO HEAR THAT!!

I know, I like your thinking better....that they're on their way back to Wilmington. But....

Oh, man. That is disturbing news. I distinctly remember reading something after the first release that Green did very well. Now hearing this makes me wonder if that was correct or not. Need to go back and see if I can find when that was posted. The whole thing makes me want to scream, and that won't do any good.

I too am going to take the approach that they are coming back, just to push the heartache away.
Kim, look how much training RB and WB have had to catch their own food. They need the parents.

What a TOTAL WASTE, for what! One more thing I shouldn't say..... They are messing with Nature, and THAT IS A MISTAKE.

Went back to look at where that info about Green was located. It's on June, Part 2, page 7. Very upsetting looking at those pictures on that page again.

I completely agree with you, Faith!

The "angelic person" you're talking about, if he exists, is a falconer. Any other person who rescued them on the sly would just slowly kill them by neglect. To take care of young falcons until they can hunt requires skills it takes a long while to learn. It means using pigeons, often in a way that bystanders would find cruel.

Obviously it was wrong to send the Wilmington girls south; if left with their parents and brothers, they would have had better training than even an experienced human falconer could give them, although a good falconer would have been better than what they got. I'm not a falconer, but I'm starting to think that even for young from a bridge nest, a good falconer is a better destiny than being cannon fodder in the mountains.

I think I'm going to be sick.

I have changed my opinions too. The people in the Peregrine Fund and allied groups that brought peregrines back were falconers. Their birds provided the captive breeding stock that were most of the ancestors of the birds we're watching now.

I am sorry to hear that the girls have not been spotted . Since we all know how long a juvie depends on it's parents after fledging, I don't see how they could just be ok and out there hunting and surviving on their own.

It just makes me sick all over again. I always believed that they just grabbed the girls because they were easy since they were already in captivity and would help meet some kind of quota or something for their little project.

i hope the wilmington sisters are flying back home

The question i have is who is actually funding the WV program? Perhaps a campaign to cut off funding from the state of wv and the usfws and anyone else on the public dole could be done to stop the sort of irresponsible decison making as exhibited with the wilmington sisters? Personally , id rather have our govermnet spending the money on $800 toilet seats and $50 screwdrivers than spend it in a way that is obviously not of any benefit to the falcon population. They cant do much if there isnt the flow of taxpayer dollars i would think

First of all, in that report SGB, it wasn't Red Band as a Sister, the sister is Silver, that was No Band in the beginning.

Thanks for your expert words Greg on the Falconer's. I agree wholeheartedly.

Better gather myself and get to work.

As some of you may be aware, we had a mother & daughter peregrine shot in Oakland, CA. Both are in a wildlife hospital. There was an additional daughter, Fern, who has not been seen with Dad. Dad is currently wooing a new female at the nest site.

Someone asked the question of Glenn Stewart with SCPBRG, if Fern could survive on her own at this stage of her life. Here was his answer:

"Yes. There are actually quite a few cases of peregrines leaving hack sites upon release, never returning, and being found breeding several years later. Not our preferred result, but it happened."

Here's more information he provided earlier in the season, after someone asked about survival rates of 1st year birds (we lost Ayah in SF, after she was safely fledged & flying strong - building collision).

... Then there is the anecdotal evidence. I have a friend who lost the peregrine
falcon that he was training for falconry on its very first free flight. This was
a captive reared bird with no experience flying or ever catching its own food.
He lost the bird in Half Moon Bay when the fog rolled in suddenly. He tracked it
with telemetry, but it flew off into the thick fog when he got close to it. That
bird was found in downtown San Francisco nine months later after having a
scuffle with other peregrine falcons (probably George and Gracie). Somebody put
a box over the bird and she was returned.

We also had falcons that left hack sites without ever returning for food one time
that were seen years later breeding. I know of a falcon that I released at our
Buellton hack site in 2004 that was found with her own chicks at an eyrie on
Santa Cruz Island in 2007.


I hope maybe that can shed some hope for these girls. So sorry to hear this news, especially after how good CJ & RG took care of them. If anything these girls have "survivor genes".

Sorry to hear about the shootings in Oakland, but happy to hear the hopeful news about some inexperienced falcons being able to survive in the wild. It was still wrong to deprive the young Wilmington females of their parents' teaching and siblings' play, but you've given us reason to hope for the best.