Hi everyone. It's good to see that all is going well between Niecey and Lil Dad. I was afraid to hear what would happen for a few days after her big battle last week, worried that she might have a hidden injury getting infected, but she looks okay!
I had been so happy to hear that 2009's Blue Girl was now a mother with her own nest site. I sent an email to Art McMorris asking for more information and he responded with a wonderful long email. Apparently a pair of falcons was exhibiting bonding behavior in downtown Bethlehem from January to March of 2011 then disappeared. All that could be determined was that at least one of them was banded and there was definitely no sign of nesting activity anywhere near where they had been chiefly seen. Again this year in January, a pair was observed at the same location and again they disappeared in early March. Art attributes this to a relatively common falcon behavior of wintering away from the nest site, sometimes quite nearby and other times a good bit farther, but he and a number of Bethlehem volunteers spent many hours searching Bethlehem for a sign of a new nest without luck.
On July 3, a Sands Casino worker observed an unbanded juvenile falcon collide with a nearby bridge. He had experience handling large birds and was able to rescue her, provide immediate first aid and get her to an excellent rehab facility, where she remains. However, her accident provided Art with a clue to the nest location and he and his team searched again. This time they were able to locate and identify a pair of adult falcons with an additional 3 juveniles, although Art believes that the place where they were observed is not the actual nest location, as it does not appear to be large enough. As the juvies were already fledged and undergoing their training as hunters, it is likely that the falcon family was already spending little time at the immediate nest area.
While it was too late to band the juvies, they were able to ID both adults. Blue Girl (band #51/AE), of course, we already know, but the male (band #28/S) also has a Harrisburg connection - he hatched on the PA/NJ Turnpike Bridge in 2010, only a year after our Niecey! They are brother and sister. Which makes him and Blue Girl cousins. As he was only hatched in 2010, either BG was bonding with a different male in 2011 (which may be the case as there is no indication in Art's report that the male from 2011 had juvenile plumage) or no nest was found because he was the male and was infertile due to his age.
I am, of course, thrilled that another one of our kids has been identified as a successful nester out in the world. I am also thrilled because Blue Girl is the third one of my rescues to be identified out there! And at the time, I was very confident that she would be heard from again. She was soooo much like Mom!
Here are a few of my pics of her from banding day and June 14, the day after she fledged.
Showing her healthy throat and disdain for getting banded
The perch she slept on the night she fledged. I got downtown a bit before 7 the next morning and she was already stretching and yelling for breakfast. Before very long she flew toward the ledge (of course she missed)
After she crashed into a few buildings and knocked herself to the sidewalk, Carlos and I managed to get a box over her since the rescue gear was all still locked up in the Ed Center. When Toni arrived, we persuaded the guard to open up a small room where we could give her a good looking over without worrying about her getting loose in the big building. Then we took her to the roof for release.
She sort of rolled out of the box.
Then she stood there, shifting from foot to foot just looking at us for I think about 5 minutes. Lots of opportunities to take pictures. We did so many rescues in 2008 and 2009 that Mom had kind of stopped going nuts when we came out on the roof. This was the last rescue of 2009, and by this point she didn't even fly back to the building, but stayed on the point where she could watch the ones that were sitting on the U building. I think it was more than an hour later before she went to check on Blue. And much, much later when she took her a food drop. We finally just went back inside and left her standing there looking at the door, even though I would have kept taking pictures as long as she wanted to pose. But it was time to get the Watch day started!
Blue was the last to fledge in 2009. At 805 grams on banding day, she was the smallest of the four females (Green was the largest, more than 100 grams heavier). She fledged on June 13, 2 days after the last previous fledge (Red Girl). After her rescue, she remained on the ledge until evening, then dropped neatly to the ledge for the night and had no more difficulty flying from then on.
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