Barring public from falcon banding in Fargo was deep disappointment

[Donna]

I was disappointed when I drove to Fargo from Jamestown, N.D., to attend the banding of the peregrine falcon chick. I have been going to this event for at least five years. This year, about a half-hour before the event was to take place, officials decided the public could not attend.

The falcon was banded on the roof of the bank building. People drove 200 miles to see it. Why wait until a half-hour before the event to make a decision like this? Everyone who planned to attend was already in town.

I have watched banding of peregrines in other states and towns over the Internet – some of them even invite school classes to come and watch. Viewers on the Internet can also watch the banding, as a camera is set up inside the building.

To date, until I watched the news, I have not been able to even see the new chick. The camera that is focused on the box has been off air 90 percent of the time, and the rest of the time it’s reruns and reruns of when the falcons first arrived. They’ve had four to five years to get the camera working right, and each year they promise a better one the next year, but it hasn’t happened.

I emailed members of the Audubon Society ahead of time to find out when the banding was taking place, and didn’t get an answer until a couple days before the event, while a friend of mine in Iowa already knew the date a month ago. Apparently it was posted on another site I haven’t seen.

I’ll be waiting to hear a believable excuse that a decision had to wait until we all got there before turning us away. If other towns can do it right, why not Fargo? It is an educational process for young kids and adults to see the banding process. You learn a lot more than watching a webcam.

Brown lives in Jamestown, N.D.