Rfalconcam Forum

State game wardens are on the hunt for whomever shot and wounded two peregrine falcons in Oakland, and hope that a $1,000 reward ponied up by falcon lovers will help them catch the perpetrator soon.

State Fish and Game Warden Ryan McCoy said shooting falcons, which are protected under California law, is also a federal violation, under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

He's been on the lookout for the shooter since June, when two falcons -- mother and 3-month old daughter -- suffered pellet wounds over their wings and bodies as they perched on their home: The Fruitvale Avenue drawbridge in Oakland.

The female, who has been named Hiya, happens to be the mate of Hiko, who was born atop San Jose City Hall in 2008 and has been living in Oakland ever since, according to Glenn Stewart, Director Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group Long Marine Laboratory University of California Santa Cruz and the biologist who tracks all the peregrine falcons living in the Bay Area.

Hiya was found shot near the corner of Laguna Avenue and Alida Street, not too far from the private Head Royce School and Mormon Temple, on June 1, according to McCoy. Her daughter, named Marina, was found shot nearby on Tiffin Road and Whittle Avenue on June 10.

Both falcons suffered broken ulnas, and are now recuperating at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum's hospital in Walnut Creek. They are in stable condition following orthopedic surgery, said Anneke Moresco, director of veterinary services at the wildlife center. The falcons are eating on their own, she said, which is a good sign, but it's always a concern when falcons' wings have been fractured. For peregrines, Moresco said strong wings are especially critical, because they hunt in the air.

Stewart has made it his personal mission to drum up reward money and help the state wardens. He's collected pledges from falcon lovers throughout the Bay Area, including many of the San Jose "Falconatics," who spend many hours tracking the lives of the falcons that live at City Hall. That $1,000 will be awarded to the person who gives information leading to the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

"I find it hard to believe that anyone would fire a weapon in a neighborhood, not to mention with intent to kill an animal like a peregrine falcon," Stewart said. "That it happened twice is beyond belief. Someone must have information.''

Anyone with information about who might have shot the peregrine falcons, should call 1-888-DFG-CalTIP (1-888-334-2258).   :crying:

This is Hiya   :pray:

mercury news

I can't even put into print what I am thinking :snarl:

Sweet girl! Bad human!  :tickedoff:

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (KGO) -- A $1,000 reward is being offered in the case of two wounded peregrine falcons. The Department of Fish and Game says someone in the Oakland hills opened fire on them with a pellet gun.

Veterinarians at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum Hospital in Walnut Creek are giving are treating Hiya, a peregrine falcon recovering from pellet gun wounds. Her daughter, Marina, was also shot. She's being treated there as well.

"They were both badly hurt, both of them have fractured wings, their bones have been broken by the shots, serious enough where they needed surgical fixation on the fractured wings," Lindsay Wildlife Museum Hospital spokesperson Susan Heckly said.

Both falcons were found on the ground 10 days apart in Oakland's Lincoln Heights neighborhood. Neighbors found out about it Monday from a flyer that was delivered door to door.

"Anger, absolute just horror," resident Hollis Matson said when asked about the incidents. "Who in my neighborhood could be doing something like this?"

The peregrine falcons have a famous connection. Hiya's mate was part of the family that got a lot of attention living on the roof of San Jose City Hall.

But beyond their celebrity connections, these birds, under state and a federal law, are not to be messed with, which is why Fish and Game wardens are following up every lead in hopes of finding the person responsible.

"Their population is always you know it's always on a balance beam, going up and down, up and down and they can become endangered again, really quickly," Fish and Game Warden William O'Brian said.

Veterinarians are guarded about the falcons' prognosis. They say the good news is that they are healing and eating on their own.



KGO TV

here is the link to the story on care2 http://www.care2.com/causes/two-peregrine-falcons-shot-in-california.html (http://www.care2.com/causes/two-peregrine-falcons-shot-in-california.html)

 :crying:

If you go to Google Maps and find Laguna Avenue and Alida Street, and Tiffin Road and Whittle Avenue in Oakland, CA, you will see that 1) the locations are close, and 2) they are both in a residential area likely to have lots of kids running around and people working on rooftops.  In other words, not a good place to discharge a shotgun.  There could be a clear danger here to the public at large.

Paul

Quotable Quotes In Alameda: Peregrine Falcons Shot (Like Paul said)

"I find it hard to believe that anyone would fire a weapon in a neighborhood, not to mention with intent to kill an animal like a peregrine falcon. That it happened twice is beyond belief. Someone [in the community] must have information."
--

Glenn Stewart, director of Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group at Long Marine Laboratory, as quoted in an San Jose Mercury News article about two falcons who had been living on the Fruitvale Bridge, but were shot several weeks ago. There is a $1000.00 reward for information about who might have shot the birds. Call 1-888-DFG-CalTIP (1-888-334-2258) if you have a tip.

Oh my goodness! As I posted earlier, that is just about enough sadness for the season! WHAT are people thinking who do this... or not!

They are ignorant. We must educate them. If that doesn't work, then we must educate them.

 :yes:

8/22/2011 update on Haya & Marina (Hiko's mate & offspring):

Peregrine falcon update: This past week was a very big week for both Haya and Marina. We are very happy to report that after spending two weeks in a large outdoor aviary, Marina's flight improved to the point where she could be transferred to a falconer. The falconer will continue her rehabilitation and will work with her to help rebuild her strength and flight abilities.

Hospital staff radiographed Haya again last week and we are pleased to see that the infection in her wing had healed. Her wing wrap was removed and she was finally able to stretch both her wings in a small aviary. After one week, hospital staff took her to our large aviary to see if she could fly. After looking around for several minutes, Haya cautiously flew across the length of the aviary! It has been almost two and a half months since she was last able to fly. We put her back in her small aviary so she can continue to stretch without overworking her newly-healed wing. Though both birds made great leaps forward in their rehabilitation, they still have a long way to go. We are all hopeful for their recovery and we thank everyone for your continued support.

Here is a wonderful blog by the falconer taking care of Marina:

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/marina/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2011/08/23/marina/)

 goodnews:

Thanks Kris, I was waiting for an update to appear!!  :clap:

This is really good news!  Thanks for posting it Kris.   :thumbsup:

That are really very good news!  :yahoo:

Good news!   :clap:

http://walnutcreek.patch.com/articles/rescued-falcon-to-be-released-today (http://walnutcreek.patch.com/articles/rescued-falcon-to-be-released-today)

Awesome news!!  :clap:  Thanks

I just read an update from the falconer who was working with Marina, Haya's daughter, who wasn't releaseable and was put into a raptor breeding facility.

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/)

Glenn Stewart is also the director of SCPBRG, the UC Santa Cruz group currently running the research behind San Francisco & San Jose cams. He was also deeply involved in the original peregrine recovery effort. Marina's father, Hiko, was hatched at the San Jose nest.

Such wonderful news about Haya's release! I hope she will always fly in safe skies from now on, and will have a long and successful life.

New updates from the Yahoo group:

Monday after release:

It went well! She flew to a pole and parked for three hours to preen and look around in the sunshine. Finally, she launched into flight and went--possibly a mile--to land on the top of a high voltage tower. She really looked great and I have high hopes for her. She knows what it takes to make it out there and has made a good recovery. I was glad to be able to witness the release today. And yes, she is wearing my bands so we have a chance of getting long-term info on her. In the short term, Jim, who handled her for the past year, put a transmitter on her (the same one she has been wearing during falconry conditioning) so we will get about ten days information... if Jim can continue to find her and if the radio stays on and keeps working. --glenn@scpbrg

Tuesday afternoon:

She is doing great. After spending the night on a high voltage tower, she is tearing up downtown Richmond in pursuit of pigeons. More later on the Stewartfalcon.Wordpress blog. --glenn@scpbrg

Thanks for the post-release follow up!  Glad things went well!

Me neither!  :scared:

A new update on Haya today:

This is a picture of Haya perched a few miles from her release site in Richmond with a partially eaten meal firmly grasped in one foot. Less than 48 hours back in the wild, she has fed herself. There is really not a lot more to say. Haya is all the way back after a very tough year and a half during which she was shot, treated for injuries, flown in falconry for conditioning, and now released. She is back to who and what she is. We don’t get to witness a lot of these. Time to celebrate!

Photo at the link; she looks great!

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/haya/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/05/haya/)

Awesome comeback!  :clap:

Wonderful-couldn't ask for a better ending!

So happy for her but can't help but think of S2 seeing this. She could have been released soon also. Great for Haya! Just goes to show what some great TLC can do.  :clap:

We are rarely able to glimpse into the life of a wild bird. At the nest site, we see the interchange between adults and the rearing of young. But where are they when they are not at the nest? This week, Jim and the Canyoneers are following every move of the newly liberated Haya’s life.

Yesterday’s big news was the capture of a pigeon. While it is the most fundamental aspect of a peregrine’s life, it re-assured us that she is able to out maneuver a pigeon, snatch it from the air, and feed herself. This is good information. Not just because it makes us feel good, but because we now know for certain that our methods work. The days, weeks, and months of medical care worked. The follow-up care of eleven months of falconry care and conditioning worked.

(By comparison, our treatment regime for Marina also worked. She looked quite good and releasable in a flight aviary but falconry training showed that she would slowly starve if released to the wild. Our methods saved her from that slow death. Another important point that we should emphasize here is that even though Haya spent a year and a half in captivity and was trained to the glove, she never became “tame.” She is every bit as wild today as she was in the spring of 2011.)

Today, Haya returned to the food she cached yesterday to eat again in the morning and then perched in one spot for no less than eight hours. There is nothing wrong with her. She is certainly able to fly. But she was released in “high” condition and is now maintaining that weight by eating, resting, and enjoying the view from high places for the first time in a long while. She is also building muscle. Trained to falconry, Haya was in good condition when she was released. But a falconry bird is not nearly the athlete that a wild peregrine falcon is. Haya is becoming a strong, wild falcon again. Today, “being a wild falcon” for Haya meant: eating some left-overs, Perching for 8 hours to digest two days worth of pigeon gorge, making a brief soaring flight, and then settling back down on a perch.

For now, downtown Richmond has a peregrine falcon.

(http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r32/djweeds/Haya.jpg)   :clap:

I'm so glad she continues to do well!  I also thought of S2 when I read this story's happy ending but, sadly, it just wasn't meant to be for her.

 :clap:  A sweet ending for this Peregrine!   

  :heart:   S2  :heart:

Another update on Haya this evening:

Sortie

Before dawn, Haya moved from her downtown Richmond hangout to the Richmond cranes near the yacht harbor; a flight of about one and a half miles. This is interesting in part because the flight is one of a pretty good distance, and in part because it is a known peregrine territory (non-breeding) occupied by one of the 2010 PG&E young, “Ari”, and his sweetheart from the far north (we assume since she evaporates each spring) known as “Smudge.” At about dawn, Smudge came in to defend her territory and engaged Haya in an aerial combat of sorts. There was some rolling with feet extended before Haya left the area and returned to her downtown haunts.

Jim and several of the Canyoneers (Mary, Ann & Cheryl) witnessed the altercation, and later saw Haya ALMOST take another pigeon from the air. All of these observations by dedicated volunteers are heartening to all of us who know of Haya’s history. And we should emphasize that these observations are possible because of Jim’s foresight to generously donate a radio telemetry transmitter–a transmitter that we (Predatory Bird Research Group donors) WILL replace for Jim.

Looking ahead, the addition of radio telemetry tracking for selected rehabilitated raptors at release could be something to seriously consider. It takes a little bit of money and a serious commitment by volunteer observers as we have seen occur this week. We will discuss it among other topics at the clinic to be kindly hosted by the Alexander Lindsay Museum on January 26. For more information see the California Council of Wildlife Rehabilitators site.

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/author/stewartfalcon/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/author/stewartfalcon/)

Today's Haya update!   :christhumbs:

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/haya-prediction/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/haya-prediction/)

 :bravo:  Gotta love the happy endings!  :yes:

It is so great to see Haya with a full crop and doing so well on her return to the wild. May she continue to stay safe and thrive.

I can't help thinking that S2 should have been soaring the skies as Haya is . . .

Just posted over at BCAW!

Haya, The Saga Continues
by stewartfalcon

On her eighth day in the wild, this shot & recovered falcon decided to leave her local area and fly straight to her old nesting territory at the Fruitvale Avenue Railroad drawbridge spanning the narrow waterway separating Oakland from Alameda. Upon her arrival, she was summarily beaten by the new resident female and driven into the water below the bridge. She swam to shore. Jim picked her up and transported her to the Alexander Lindsay Museum veterinary hospital where she had a check-up, and now she is back in her mews eating and healing.

Jim plans to release her again on Saturday at downtown Richmond.

It was not unexpected that Haya would return to her territory. There is plenty of information on nest site tenacity. Tundra peregrines migrate 10,000 miles to South America and 10,000 miles back only to re-claim last year's nesting territory. The California condors that were trapped in the mid-80s for breeding and then released twenty years later returned to the same perches they had enjoyed decades earlier. Peregrine falcons that are trapped and moved hundreds of miles from Southern California eyries to protect least tern and snowy plover colonies--return sooner than the drivers who transport them.

We cannot do anything to protect a rehabilitated raptor from intra-specific mayhem. Should we keep Haya in captivity to protect her from harm? Heck no! She and other rehabilitated raptors need to work these things out on their own. But we are getting a peek into the true needs, results, and ramifications of doing wildlife rehabilitation, aren't we? There are many steps; many variables.

For perspective on what may be next, it is probably useful to reference our recent experience with the tiercel peregrine, "EC" at the San Jose City Hall territory. He was driven from his territory by a new male. EC knew that he had been bested by the intruder and retired from his duties as a breeding male. He turned over territory ownership to the new bird.

EC's experience is a sample of one, but since I am making predictions this week, I think it is likely that Haya too has learned from her experience at the Fruitvale Bridge. Her former territory is occupied by a new falcon. She will make a choice and it is our job to give her a chance to make that choice. There is a good chance that she will step back as EC did and avoid further confrontations.

Personal survival trumps even reproduction as a motivator.

I was just posting this too-also saw it on BCAW.  Hopefully she learned a lesson and will move on to another area.

The positive side - it's not breeding season so she's not hopped on hormones and will have a clear mind to determine she likes being free more than being in rehab - I hope  :confused:.  So happy they were watching out for her and were there to rescue her again.  :handshake:

I think it was a good decision to provide Haya with a tail-mounted transmitter when she was released. Otherwise, the outcome today might have been different. I'm glad she is safe and being well cared for until she is ready for release again.

I agree, that was good planning  :wave:

Wow, that's amazing! Lesson learned, I hope. Glad she's OK. Thanks for posting all!    :phew:

Not unexpected for sure.

We've seen it here...twice. The first time Beauty won and Mariah stepped back.

The second time...well, we don't know precisely what happened, but Beauty was released and showed up on camera looking pretty beat up a few hours after Unity was killed. As many of you know, I have my personal opinion what happened.

I'm glad Haya survived and I hope she did learn.

 :phew: A close call for Haya! Stay safe please!!  :rolleyes:

Haya settling? An update:

http://http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/haya-settling/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/haya-settling/)

 :santawave: :thanks2:

Ahh, poor girl. She'll find a mate! (Fingers crossed)

Just got an email update on Haya from stewartfalcon!

Haya’s Progress
by stewartfalcon
Haya had a good day that began early. She arrived at the Union Bank Bldg in Oakland soon after 7 a.m. with a large shorebird clutched firmly in her foot. Barbara confirmed the meal when she collected the prey remains from the sidewalk later--all that remained was a pair of wings connected by a few cleanly-picked bones. Later, she lay down on a wide ledge in the sun (perhaps because she was top-heavy from a very full crop!) to rest.

Never has a wild, non-nesting falcon been more closely watched. There is quite a crew out there every day. They observed an adult tiercel come in while she ate her shorebird. She defended her food, flew with it, but returned without it. Still, she had a large crop when she came to perch. A juvenile peregrine buzzed her a little later while she relaxed on the wide ledge and then selected a couple other perches on the building briefly. The juvie eventually flew off to the bay marsh while Haya continued to digest her large meal.

Haya moved to the building at 333 Hegenberger. She completed one brief hunting flight over the marsh and then settled down to roost for the night at 333. Barbara and others left her on the corner of the building at 5 p.m. commenting that she seemed in command of her domain.

 :christhumbs:

What a gal! Thanks!! :chriscat:

Another Haya update!

We are getting a nice collection of Haya pics in silhouette with a big crop. These pictures and this story make a nice Christmas present for all who watched this bird breed at the Fruitvale Ave Railroad Bridge; all who followed her young as they fledged; all who anguished over the injuries she and her daughter sustained and then searched for an answer; for Dr. Shannon Rigg, Trish Orlowski, and all those on the Lindsay Wildlife staff who attended to her for half a year; and the falconer, Jim DeRoque, who cared for her every day at his home and presided over her physical therapy for a full year thereafter. Merry Christmas! Haya has another full crop that she earned all by herself.
 
It would have been easy to say that she could not make it when she came in with a broken ulna, or again when she achieved a bone infection at the site of the break. It would have been easy to give up on her when she could not fly well with her imped (repaired) feathers, or after she got beat up upon her return to the nest structure. But a dedicated field crew including Cheryl, Mary, Ann, Barbara, Janet, Sherrill, and of course, Jim, kept a close eye on her every day after release and supplied us with these updates and photos.
 
She is living on the periphery of her old territory, about four miles from her former nest site and she can see the drawbridge towers from most of the perches she uses every day. Jim called with a telling story. It is a story that is indicative of the challenges any raptor faces while living in our world today.
 
Jim saw Haya take a pigeon from the air in the vicinity of the Coliseum. As he maneuvered around the area trying to locate her with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on his radio telemetry receiver, the signal started to boom loudly and he knew he was close to her. We are conditioned to look at the lamp posts, signs and tree branches for a raptor, but as Jim accelerated onto the Coliseum freeway onramp he almost ran over her! He said, “Our eyes met as I passed her on the pavement.” She was standing with her pigeon on the white line of the freeway onramp. “How ironic would it have been if I was the one to hit her on the freeway after all this?” he asked.
 
Jim quickly pulled over so that traffic would go around them and protected Haya on the pavement but she soon left her pigeon to fly off. Jim re-positioned the pigeon and she eventually returned to it and finished her meal. The photo above illustrates the bulging crop that resulted from that meal.
 
We see raptors standing alongside the road and hunting the freeway medians every day. There is no telling how many close calls occur as raptor and prey meet in a focused moment of fate. Fate was on the side of Haya when she was found on the street in an Oakland neighborhood and taken to the Lindsay Wildlife hospital. And fate was on her side when long time Lindsay volunteer, Jim DeRoque stepped up to help. Thanks to a lot of folks, she’s making it.

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/another-big-crop-for-haya/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/another-big-crop-for-haya/)

Haya update:

  Haya Settles In
by stewartfalcon 

It has been a month since Haya was released at Pt. Pinole Regional Park. As readers of this blog know, she became self-sufficient almost immediately. What a wonderful reward for those who worked so hard to get her back in the wild!

Now the signal from telemetry transmitter has faded but not before Haya settled in to a pattern of regular perches and a hunting territory at the periphery of her old nesting territory. She favors an area centered on the building at 333 Hegenberger south of the Fruitvale Bridge. Observers find her habitually using the same perches and have seen her eating on several occasions. Views of her bands confirm her identity.

Thanks to many dedicated observers, we are learning more about a rebounding peregrine falcon population in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the case of Haya, the dynamics of territorial behavior at one site as well. In the new year, I am grateful to those many observers and for the opportunity they have all provided to witness a successful release and a robust peregrine falcon population after its brush with extinction.

Finally-a Haya update!

http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/haya-inquiries/ (http://stewartfalcon.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/haya-inquiries/)

 goodnews:

 Very sad news: :crying:

Posted by Glenn Stewart:

IN MEMORIUM

I regret to inform everyone that HAYA was found dead beneath the Hegenberger overpass. A headless pigeon was found nearby. We speculate that she was struck by a car shortly after capturing the pigeon. This is a tough break for all of us--those who provided medical treatment, rehabilitation conditioning, observing following release, and everyone who thought about and cared about the outcome for this bird. These things happen every day but we do not know about it unless it is a banded bird--that someone finds and reports. Thanks to the work of many, she did not meet her end shot and starving or in a medical clinic, but with her face into the wind while carving out a piece of the San Francisco Bay as her own. With regrets, --glenn@scpbrg

Fly free, Haya.

Oh no and she was doing so well! Poor baby, she tired.  :(  Fly Free Haya!

 :(

Reminds me of how Unity died.

Fly free Haya  :crying:

Another post by Glenn about Haya:



HAYA: Rest in Peace
In Raptor Rehabilitation on March 29, 2013 at 11:45 am
Well, we lost her. It was one of those things that can happen to any raptor at any time. I posted to the nest camera discussion groups that she was hit by a car but upon further inspection that seems not to be the case. A headless pigeon was found near her body under the Hegenberger overpass. Thanks to the bands that she wore, identification was easy. Due to nearby traffic it was easy to assume that she was hit and killed instantly on the roadway while trying to control and eat a recently captured pigeon. But she had burns on both feet and on her head making us now think that she was probably electrocuted. If she touched one wire with a wingtip and the pigeon’s wing touched another wire, the electrical current passing through her would have been tremendous. There was a utility pole above her as well as a vehicle overpass.

These things happen and there is nothing in the world we can do to prevent it short of burying all the utility wires. After seeing the x-rays of her injury, the second fracture at the site of a bone infection, and her poor plumage after months of medical treatment, I never thought I would see the day when she was released successfully. The Lindsay Museum did a heroic job of treating her. Jim DeRoque put in the time to physically condition her and molt her through to a new set of feathers. And Haya pushed all the way through to once again live like a peregrine with her face freely looking in to the wind. What happened to her could have–and does–happen to raptors every single day. She had an accident on the utility wires that had nothing at all to do with her injury, treatment, or rehabilitation.

How heart breaking for those involved with treating her. They can at least take consolation in the fact that she died as a free flying falcon.  :(

Bury the wires, I say! Not easily done. Poor girl, she was doing pretty good on her own. There is a place in my heart for her. Something about a rehabbed falcon!  :(

I know -I thought of S2 and all the time they spent with her.