E11 has hatched! Welcome to the world, little one, and congratulations to Harriet and M15 on their two brand new hatchlings!

E10 was not exactly helping E11 to hatch. At one point E10 appeared to have one tiny foot on E11's head. At that moment Harriet decided it was time to feed E10, who has a good appetite.

Beautiful parent, and sweet little E10:

Beautiful little E10 this morning:

Love the video, Kris, especially the way M15 tiptoed into the nest to meet his new little one, and that he was allowed to take over for a short time. Thank you!

This year has been a difficult one at the Kansas City nest. The breeding season started well, with the long-time resident pair, 49/C and her unbanded mate, incubating four eggs. One day during incubation, however, both birds became extremely agitated and made threatening vocalizations and gestures towards an intruder out of camera range. Shortly thereafter, Dad took off after the intruder, and when he returned later he was extremely distressed and had blood on his abdomen. He took off once more to chase the intruder male, and I have never seen him again. Dad was always one of the very best providers and made raising four chicks each year look easy. He and his mate were extremely bonded and gentle towards each other. He would never voluntarily have abandoned his mate and their eggs.

Mom was left to continue incubating on her own, with the intruder still somewhere in the area. The four chicks hatched, and she made a valiant effort to provide for all four without any supplemental food being provided. The smallest chick, sadly, did not survive. At one point the intruder male came into the nest and was angrily chased out by Mom. This male is banded black/red, but the only photo I have is blurred and in the glimpse I had of him the bands were unreadable.

The other chicks survived and were named and banded, and once they fledged nothing more was heard of them.

Until now.

One of the three chicks has been seen in Dallas, hunting very successfully. Her name is Gabi, and she is banded black/blue 69/K. She has taken up residence at the 60-story Comerica Bank Building, more than 500 miles from Kansas City. I don't know if she will stay through the winter, but it appears that she likes Dallas.

Comerica Bank Tower:



Great photo of Gabi by Katherine Unmuth:

[E10 has hatched, 8:54pm, 12-26-17, we will still be checking to see if we can tell when they were completely out of the shell.]

E10 has hatched! Confirmation from the site:

E10 has hatched, 8:54pm, 12-26-17, we will still be checking to see if we can tell when they were completely out of the shell.

Welcome to the world, E10!

Thank you so much for this update and the great photo, Donna and Lucie! It's good to see this beautiful peregrine pair. I hope they will stay safe and have a successful year in 2018.

[Peregrine Falcon born in Moorhead, spotted in Louisiana]

Earlier this year, the resident female at the Fargo nest, Miracle, born at the Sherco nest in 2004 and banded black/green 28/D, left Fargo and moved to Moorhead, Minnesota.

She found a new mate; Walsh, born at the Grand Forks, North Dakota nest in 2012, banded black/red 29/C. Walsh is a son of the great matriarch Terminator and her former mate Roosevelt.

They raised two chicks, who were named Stella and Fiona at banding. One of the chicks is banded black/red C/83, but I am not sure which one.

Fiona has now been sighted in Louisiana:

Peregrine Falcon born in Moorhead, spotted in Louisiana

(WDAY) A happy update to a story about our two baby peregrine falcons that were born this summer at the Anheuser Busch Plant in Moorhead.

Fiona the falcon now more fully grown into her feathers, was spotted by a bird watcher in Louisiana!



Above is an image from June of Stella and Fiona when they were tagged and given a clean bill of health.

Peregrine falcons are rare in the region, there are only two known nests in North Dakota.

The Urban Raptor Project says Fiona has a high chance of survival now that she's migrated south for the winter.

No word yet on where Stella has flown off to.

The link includes a short video with images of Fiona. She is a beauty.

https://www.wday.com/news/4377365-peregrine-falcons-born-moorhead-spotted-louisiana

The pip is making progress:

Both eggs have now pipped!

The pip in the first egg, 8:33 a.m.



The pip in the second egg, 3:21 p.m.

The first pip was reported this morning at 8:33 a.m.

No view of the eggs at the moment:

DC at the nest very briefly; possibly both.

       

[Spirit]

One small correction to the article:

Spirit was not named after she arrived in Montreal; she and her siblings were all named at banding in 2004.

Buckeye and Hillary had four chicks in 2004:

Spirit, banded black/green 93/E, female

Mystic, banded black/green 92/E, female

Turbo, banded black/green 50/P, male

Pulse, banded black/green 61/P, male

Turbo disappeared shortly after fledging. Searches were done, and searchers found his body on the ground.

Mystic was found at a later date with a fractured wing. She had surgery for the injury, but very sadly died during the surgery.

Pulse, at three years old in 2007, attempted to take over the Cathedral of Learning nest in Pittsburgh, which at that time was owned by Erie and Dorothy. There was an extremely fierce territorial battle at the nest box between Pulse and Erie, and very sadly, Pulse was killed in that battle.

So for ten years now, Spirit has been the only survivor of these four chicks.

Still no sightings of her that I know of, but I continue to hope that she is doing well. Having looked at her X-rays, I am somewhat surprised that she was able to be released, but I have a great deal of confidence in Spirit.

Photo of Spirit taken by the trucker who found her:



Photos of Spirit in care at l'Union québécoise de réhabilitation des oiseaux de proie by Guy Fitzgerald.







Photo by Christian Fritschi of the beautiful moment of Spirit's release:

[The story of the falcon named Spirit]

Here is the article, which I translated from the French.

The story of the falcon named Spirit

Posted December 15 2017

A falcon with a great deal of "Spirit"

In May 2004, in Cleveland, Ohio, biologists banded young peregrine falcons at a nest installed on a bridge structure. Several years later, one of these birds was observed in Montreal on one of the buildings of l’Université de Montréal. It was thanks to the numbers on the bands on her legs that she was identified, and she was named Spirit. Then, in 2009, began a long history of following the reproduction of peregrine falcons in Montreal by means of webcam images on the Internet. You can see Spirit's family tree at this link here, or follow the activities of these magnificent birds live at http://www.ornithologie.ca/faucons.

In April 2017, webcam surveillance allowed the observation of a fight between two female peregrine falcons at the nest. In July 2017, UQROP received a call from a trucker in Montreal concerning a bird of prey who appeared to be injured. He sent us a photo on his cellphone, which allowed us to recognize an adult peregrine falcon. One of our most valued volunteer transporters, Christian Fritschi, agreed to go and catch the bird and bring her to us at the Birds of Prey Clinic at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

During the general examination of Spirit at the Birds of Prey Clinic injuries were observed on the cere and the beak, covered by dry scabs, as well as a major, hot swelling of the right elbow. X-rays confirmed a septic arthritis of the elbow, and we also found an old fracture on the right side of the pelvis (synsacrum). All these injuries were compatible with the famous battle of about 30 minutes duration which took place in April and in June with another female. The X-rays also told us that Spirit had been shot with lead ammunition from a rifle (lead shot) at some point in her life. What a survivor!



Radiography of Spirit where the arrows indicate the swelling of the right elbow (septic arthritis), the fracture of the right hip and the lead shot in the keel bone.

After several weeks of treatment with antibiotics, wound care and physiotherapy, Spirit was able to be transferred into a rehabilitation flight at Chouette à voir! at Saint-Jude. The final stage of her rehabilitation took place in the large flight. Then
the great moment arrived on November 19. Spirit reclaimed her freedom at the site of Chouette à voir! at Saint-Jude. We are waitimg to hear news of her when she will be seen and recognized by her bands.