Female Falcon Injured:
SOUTH BEND -- Bad news for fans of the city's peregrine falcons.
Diva, the new female that had been spotted downtown in recent days, was found injured Friday morning along Riverside Drive at Leeper Park, local raptor rehabilitator Carol Riewe said.
"She was bumped by a car, obviously," Riewe said of the 1-year-old bird from Youngstown, Ohio.
The person who found the bird took her to South Bend Animal Care and Control, Riewe said. From there, she was transported to Gilmore Park Animal Clinic, where she was diagnosed with a spinal injury
"It's a nerve problem, a spinal problem that is preventing her from using her left leg," Riewe said.
Riewe said Diva is in her care now. The bird is resting, she said, and has been given an anti-inflammatory medication.
"I have her here at my home, in my hospital," she said. "We'll just see how things go. With nerve things, you look for certain results in a certain number of days … and you keep playing it out until either the bird recovers or you hit a plateau."
Unfortunately, any possibility of she and Zeus mating this season has been dashed, she said.
"Even if she recovers from this, she'll have to have some re-conditioning first before she goes back to fly, and it's going to put her too far into the (mating) season," Riewe said.
Diva's presence downtown — she had been spotted in recent weeks hunting with Zeus and was finally identified earlier this week — had raised hopes that she and Zeus would mate. Zeus' previous mate, Guinevere, died last year.
Riewe said it's not too late for Zeus to meet another bird. In fact, a second female was actually spotted over the weekend tussling with Diva for control of the nesting box atop the County-City Building.
"It's possible," she said. "If there's somebody else out there looking around, somebody could cruise in."
Nevertheless, "It's a bummer," she said.
http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/local/female-falcon-injured/article_dd506cac-b127-11e3-86b3-001a4bcf6878.html Poor Diva, she gave it her best!
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