Peregrine Falcon Pictures from
Chris & Chad Saladin
Peregrine Falcons © Chris & Chad Saladin |
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What's happening with the Pereguines on the Hilliard Rd. Bridge?
This note came in from Chris & Chad Saladin on April 10, 2007.
Thought I'd update you-- there's obviously still
alot to see, and we might not need to give up on the hope of having a
peregrine nest at Hilliard this year after all!
Well, I don't know where to begin. Buckeye left
the bridge last Tuesday, went to Winton/Carlyle, was still there on
Wednesday and we haven't seen him since then. We're assuming that he either
knew that he could no longer defend his site so he didn't return, or he may
be gone. We'll sure miss him, and it is still hard to be at Hilliard
without him, but the action there has not given us time to grieve!
Zeus, a first-year male from Columbus was there
with Hillary the day that Buckeye left-- thought we were going to see what
we saw five years ago when Hillary came in-- Zeus started getting closer and
closer to her, they did some ledge displays, and this morning they actually
mated on the light post! Later today, there were four peregrines there at
once-- Zeus and another male, and Hillary and another female. Lots of
confusing action that lead to Zeus being chased off and Hillary being with
the other male. Now, even more crazy-- the new male is Titan, the '04 male
that's been in Lorain most of his life! Then Titan mated with Hillary twice
under the bridge! That drive to procreate must be something! We'll be
there bright and early tomorrow-- hard to keep up with all of this drama!
Just thought I'd keep you "up to speed" with
this peregrine soap opera, in case you want to come and see some falcon
action sometime! Maybe that field trip will be pretty exciting!
See ya,
Chris
Here's another update as of June 1, 2007
We still have you on our calendar for the
Hilliard Road field trip on June 24th, but we have some bad news-- it looks like
there won't be a nest this year. The female and her new partner have been
incubating for over 40 days now and we've seen no sign of a hatch. We're going
to be going underneath the bridge with ODNR to see what's there (whether the
eggs were infertile or if they hatched dead chicks), but we're assuming that the
pair will give up on incubation soon.
We would still be glad to tell about what has
happened and put the spotting scopes on the adults if they are hanging around
that day, but of course you will see less with no young there.
I've attached a
few shots from some recent
bandings at other sites. I also put in one of our last shots of Buckeye, the
almost 14-year-old male that died this year.
Happy birding!
Chris (and Chad)
Thanks, Chris & Chad for the updates.