Peregrine Falcon Pictures from
Chris & Chad Saladin

Peregrine Falcons © Chris & Chad Saladin

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.


Western Cuyahoga Audubon Society, 4310 Bush Ave, Cleveland, OH 44109 info@wcasohio.org