YES!!!!!!!!!!! This is great news following the sad news yesterday! I'm so happy for her and Kendal!

http://blogs.indystar.com/falconblog/2011/05/24/feisty-fit-and/ New update and pics

It's a girl and her name is Phoenix!

I can tell you she looked very good and didn’t appear to have any “bugâ€� issues.  John always dusts the chicks for mites, but there didn’t appear to be any on her.  Her feathers are coming in very well and Amy K. (John’s assistant) said she was very strong.  Amy always has the fun job of keeping the chick still while John bands and draws blood.  That means trying to keep still an angy, talon-jabbing falcon chick who doesn’t like the situation at all.

Richard Kinnett was able to briefly hold her and he declared her “heavy.â€�  Hey, I have no doubt since she gets fed so darn much by KathyQ!  But that’s okay – I know she’ll slim down.

Just now..you can sure ID Cinnamon!

WAYNESBORO, Va. — “To baby eaglets: I hope you grow big and strong. Hope you get set free. P.S. Do not eat the paper.�

The message, written in pencil on a brown and white paper cutout of a bald eagle, came from a first-grader in Madisonville, La. It was among stacks of letters from well-wishers, children and adults alike, who’ve been tuning in to Eagle Cam at the Wildlife Center of Virginia.

Three 10-week-old eaglets, rescued from a nest at the Norfolk Botanical Garden after their mother was killed by an airplane, are the stars who have attracted thousands of viewers to the Wildlife Center’s website since they arrived four weeks ago.

On their first day at the center, about 30,000 visitors crashed the Wildlife Center’s Website, said Ed Clark, Wildlife Center president.

“About 175,000 people buried us with emails right after the birds got here,� he said.

The concerned eagle fans inundated the center with questions and complaints, some angry at first about the removal of the birds from the nest at the garden, a decision made by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to save the babies.

The attention was a little overwhelming at first, said Clark, but he and his staff decided to go with it. They set up a live feed from the eaglet’s new nest out in the woods and the babies were back on webcam in two days. Clark began doing live chats online with fans.

“I did a 90-minute chat interview online, and just laid it all out for them,� he said. “I explained that if we didn’t take the babies, they would see at least one die, because the male (parent) wouldn’t be able to care for all of them by himself.�

The center’s recent plans to do more educational outreach online by upgrading software and hardware could not have been timed better. The devoted eagle watchers from around the world have “validated and reinforced� the efforts to have a stronger online presence, Clark said.

The eaglets’ parents were the first to hit the Big Time when they set up house in a pine tree at the garden six years ago. A web cam was set up, and wildlife lovers obsessively followed their adventures in babymaking.

Their most recent batch of eggs hatched successfully, but mom, with a fish in her mouth, was struck at the airport by an Air Wisconsin plane. The company donated a “significant contribution� toward the care of the eaglets.

Fans also have been generous. And they entered the Wildlife Center in the Chase Community Giving vote and the center won a $25,000 grant in Round 1. Round 2 continued until midnight last night - the center was in the running for $100,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.

“In five days we’ve increased our active donors by 25 percent,� Clark said. “That would be unrealistically ambitious goal for one year in a normal development program.�

Meanwhile, the eaglets are thriving in their caged nest in the woods. “In the morning, they’re like kids jumping up and down on the bed,� Clark said.

Beth Fife tried her best to soothe five peregrine falcon chicks making their way through a medical check and banding on Thursday as a roomful of onlookers snapped photos.

"It helps calm them down," said Fife, a wildlife conservation officer, after gently blowing into their faces.

The chicks -- three females and two males -- were born in April in a nest on the 37th floor of the Gulf Tower, Downtown, and will soon leave. The nest is one of two in Pittsburgh belonging to the Urban Falcon Recovery Project. The other is on the Cathedral of Learning in Oakland.

Falcons are territorial, said Steven J. Sarro, director of animal programs at the National Aviary.

"The Downtown birds stay here; the Oakland birds stay there," said Sarro, 52, of the North Side.

A total of 10 chicks hatched last year, and nine this year, Sarro said. The leg bands allow individual birds to be tracked and identified so their population can be monitored.

The peregrine falcon project is sponsored by the National Aviary, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, University of Pittsburgh, Gulf Tower, Make-a-Wish Foundation and private donors. People can watch the chicks via real-time streaming video and sound online at www.aviary.org/falcon.

The peregrine falcon was one of the first species listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1974. Although their recovery went well enough to remove them from the national list in 1999, they are considered endangered in Pennsylvania. The state has about 27 nesting sites.

"Hopefully, we'll work ourselves out of a job here," Sarro said.

HE WAS the sole surviving barn owl at his East Riding nature reserve after the coldest winter in 31 years.

Wardens at Tophill Low nature reserve, near Driffield, were worried he may have to fly off to find love.

However, staff have discovered he has found a new partner and five chicks have been born.

Richard Hampshire, reserve warden, said: "After the last two bad winters we had only one male bird remaining on the reserve. We kept this single bird alive by feeding it voles and mice caught by the warden's cat which seems to have got it through the winter.

"Following the bad weather we saw a gradual increase in barn owl activity. The question was whether our barn owl would remain at the reserve or whether it would move to find a mate."

In a bid to tempt a partner for the lonely barn owl, volunteers and wardens cleared invasive Hawthorn and Willow trees from the owls hunting grasslands.

The reserve's nest boxes were also given a spring clean.

Mr Hampshire said: "We did not know how he had fared until we checked the nest boxes last week. On opening the boxes we were pleasantly surprised to discover five chicks."

Tophill Low had seen a peak in the number of barn owls at the end of 2009, when there were seven fledglings.

But barn owls face a battle for survival in cold snaps because they are unable to hunt for food when there is snow covering the ground.

To add to their winter woes, their feathers are not waterproof, making it even harder for them to keep warm.

Mr Hampshire said: "The chicks are great news as it means there are more barn owls to repopulate not only the reserve, but also the wider East Yorkshire area.

"The owlets will be tolerated for three months or so during which they will fledge and be taught to hunt by the parent birds.

"Come autumn, the parents will actively force them to leave the area as they do not want to be competing for food with them over the hard winter months.

"Usually many young owls die in their first winter, but these may be lucky as the crash in barn owl numbers means there are lots of good territories available for the young to colonise this year."

Daddy
his chick

HullDaily

At least two peregrine falcon chicks are calling the Blue Water Bridge home this spring, said David McElwee, the bridge's acting maintenance supervisor.

Christine Becher, who tracks peregrine falcons for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said she will check the nest Tuesday to age and count the number of chicks.

The department likely will band the birds within the next week and a half, Becher said.

The bands help identify the birds, allowing biologists to monitor them.

"We know that they're being successful," she said. "That's the aim of the project, to monitor and evaluate how they're doing."

Bridge workers constructed a peregrine falcon nesting box under the westbound span in 2005. Tonga, a female peregrine falcon, has called the bridge home for several years.

Becher said she assumes the chicks are Tonga's, but she won't be certain until Tuesday.

McElwee said bridge maintenance staff enjoys seeing the birds.

"They swoop at us from time to time, but nothing close enough to do any damage," McElwee said. "It can be a lot of fun, in the long run."

Tim Payne, the DNR's southeast Michigan wildlife supervisor, said he didn't believe there were more than 20 peregrine falcons in Michigan.

"It's just one of a small handful of nests throughout the state," Payne said.

He said in the early 1990's the department started monitoring multiple nests in the Detroit area.

Fifty years ago there were no known successful nesting sites for peregrine falcons east of the Mississippi, Payne said.

State and federal groups have been working since the 1970s to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction.

Perched along the Blue Water Bridge, Tonga, a mother peregrine falcon from Mississauga, Ontario, watches over her nest last summer. Peregrine falcon chicks were born this week under the bridge.

  and welcome.

  and welcome!

The wikipedia article on kiwi is a nice intro. "The kiwi lays the biggest egg in proportion to its size of any bird in the world, so even though the kiwi is about the size of a domestic chicken, it is able to lay eggs that are about six times the size of a chicken's egg."

   OMG!   

Now THAT has to hurt!

[auntiewood (grannywood):]

auntiewood (grannywood): KP falcon rpt- copulating at west end of complex. U now whining.

Link:
http://twitter.com/auntiewood/statuses/74803267535769600

Oh not again!! Surprised Beauty didn't follow him over.

what now for A&B--i don't mean about reclutching, but what they will they do
presently--Will they stay around TS? the NB? or DT----or will they "peregrine" off ???

I'm pretty sure they will be staying a while. Wonder if A has been over to KP lately? I have to feel bad for Unity, it's really none of their faults. It's what's in Archer that drove him to both. I still love him, Beauty and Unity, no matter. I wish no harm to any. 

[Cinnamon is named after someone.]

William and Kate were supplied by 2 members of the Little Embers program a part of the Toronto Fire Council(first nations group). The other 2 names were chosen by our sponsors. Cinnamon is named after someone.

I love your way BF! Right to the point! 

How awful for him. I wonder if the new male had any part in this. Every day, something else in the Falcon world. Need a Xanax! 

I didn't even think that the new male...don't want to say it.  Poor Irving. 
It makes me go back to wondering what happened to our Mr. T who was Beauty's boy-toy through the winter  months. She WAS happy looking through that time, flying around and being free. 
It is tough, but so ware the peregrines.  We are just watching. 

I thought it strange that the same day Archer showed up was the last sighting of Mr. T.  No battle that we know of-just quietly flew away?

Maybe T knew it was time to go.

  YAY Congrats!!