By Jackie Fallon
March 13, 2007
Well, the season is certainly in full swing! The majority of the birds are back on territory in the southern half of the state, with the North Shore birds returning soon.
With their return (if they left the area at all in the fall to migrate), the falcons are busy with nesting site selection and courtship. If they never left the area, they are busily defending their nesting site from other falcons and attracting a mate. The next four to six weeks feel like the busiest to me -- frantically trying to identify and re-confirm which adult is at a specific territory and when eggs are laid.
So far, the field team is off to a good start. Some of the sites where we have already identified the adults are:
|
Site |
Name |
Sex |
Band |
Hatch Year |
Hatch Location |
Nesting History |
|
City Center |
Scalpee |
F |
unbanded |
1997 |
? |
2003-2007 - here |
|
|
Younger |
M |
b/g 04/N |
2003 |
Maiden Rock |
2004-3M; 2005-7-here |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
City Hall |
|
F |
USFWS |
? |
? |
2000-2006-here |
|
|
Bor |
M |
b/g 03/N |
2003 |
Monticello |
2005-6-here |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lock/Dam1 |
Amelia |
F |
b/g 0/*G |
2000 |
Monticello |
2000-7-here |
|
|
Survivor |
M |
b/g 42/N |
2004 |
High Bridge Plant |
2007-here |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bremer/NCL |
Jill |
F |
b/g 50/B |
2002 |
Castle Rock |
2004-5-here; 2006-3M |
|
|
Sota |
M |
b/r 8/*E |
1994 |
Mayo Clinic |
1998-2005-here; 2006-3M |
b/r=black over red
b=black (Canada)
r=red (Canada)
*=letter or number is tipped on the side
Italics site is still being determined by birds
So far, we have had quite a bit of luck in reading the bands of the birds with a Leica spotting scope, but the weather and luck of the bird’s behavior has been on our side. My shortest record for reading a band was less than 10 minutes for reading 2 different birds’ bands at the St. Cloud Prison. My longest band-reading session: more than 38 hours to read one band of one bird at the Wells Fargo site in Bloomington! However, even after reading a band of a bird at a specific site, we are always trying to reconfirm that band identity at every opportunity. Especially during March and April, birds may try to oust a resident bird from their territory, and it is important to note any change in the parentage of any resulting chicks. Some sites seem to have more territoriality challenges than others, but we try and watch as many as possible.
We hope to have all the birds identified within the next four to six weeks, but there are also a few new sites where the adults are identified only after the birds are already on eggs or the chicks have hatched in late May or early June. Stay tuned for more information on a specific site or the entire state population. We are hoping for a good crop of nests with eggs in 2007, and so far, things are looking very promising.