Columbus, OH Falcons 2014

[Annette]

Welcome little one! 

[carly]

Hatch #2 for Durand and Spark!!! 

[Annette]

  

[Donna]

  

[MAK]

 

[carly]

#3 just hatched 

[Kris G.]

#3 just hatched 

Wonder if she'll try to feed this one a whole bird! 

[carly]

New Blog:

Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Great Day for Bling!

Yesterday's banding event went well. HUGE THANKS to our video team for filming and to Susie Vance, who gave the "Play by Play" of the banding process. Another BIG THANKS goes out to the students, parents, teachers and faculty of Griffith Thomas Elementary School for participating in the Falcon Naming Contest.

All three chicks (1 male and 2 females) looked great and very healthy! Each received a USGS band on their right leg and a color band on their left leg. Here are the details on the "bling:"

Dart (male) black/red: 38/D (USGS band is purple, yellow legs)
Blaze (female) black/red: 48/Z (USGS band is silver, yellow legs)
Hoshi (female) black/red: 31/Z (USGS band is silver, blue legs)

Besides the leg bands (which aren't always visible), included above is a note about the color of the legs of each chick to help tell them apart while they are still in the nest. The leg color of the chicks can vary some by individual but when they mature, they will all have yellow legs. Here they are, all lined up showing their bling:

New this year, we used a camera strapped to Donna to provide a different perspective of the banding. Here is a link to a video of highlights.

After the event the chicks were returned safely to the nest and rested most of the rest of the afternoon. The nestcam lens was cleaned and hopefully it will stay that way!

The unhatched egg was left in the nest as the Division of Wildlife does not have authorization from the US Fish & Wildlife Service to remove it. If it is still present at the end of the summer when we do annual maintenance on the box, it will be removed at that time.

[MAK]

Blue legs!!!! 

[Donna]

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/06/24/falcon-falls-from-Rhodes-Tower.html

Downtown falcon suffers crash landing, good samaritan claims injured falcon! One of the youngest peregrine falcon fledglings nested in the downtown Rhodes Tower was found injured in an alley behind the building yesterday morning.

Blaze, a female that hatched in April, has had a few rough flights already, said Ohio Division of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Donna Daniel.
After being grounded, the bird will go to a wildlife rehab center to be checked out, Daniel said.

[AlisonL]

There has been no update on Blaze since this one, posted on the blog on July 10.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Status Report on Blaze

Nothing much new to report on Blaze other than we were hoping she would have started getting active and doing her own exercising by now.  Since she hasn't, rehab staff will begin working with her several times a day to get her flying and working those muscles.  For the most part, it is pretty much a wait and see situation.

On another note, we are still (occasionally) seeing a juvenile return to the ledge, presumably Hoshi.  It's actually not really that common for the fledglings (now old enough to technically not be considered fledglings any longer) to keep coming back to the nest ledge as we have seen this year...but nonetheless it is appreciated by all watching!

Blaze must have had a very major collision to do so much damage to the keel bone. I hope she will be okay once she has had time to heal.

Hoshi has continued to visit the nest from time to time, and Dart made a very welcome return to the nest a few days ago. He had not been seen for some time.

Spark was at the nest this morning:

[AlisonL]

A new update from Donna Daniel on the blog today. Here is the part of the update which relates to Blaze:

Blaze remains in rehab.  She is doing quite well and has recovered from the keel issue and is now fully capable of flight.  At least on paper, she is ready to be released.  But timing is everything in these cases and unfortunately, timing is not good for Blaze.  The quandary is, when she was grounded and taken in for evaluation, she had not yet learned to hunt on her own.   She has been gone from the territory for an extended length of time during a key period in the nesting cycle (when the juveniles become independent of the adults) that there is a definite concern with releasing her back in the downtown area.  As mentioned above, Durand and Spark have shifted gears from raising youngsters to bonding with each other and the site so they probably would no longer provide food for Blaze.  In fact, there is the possibility that they might even consider her an intruder into the territory and could be aggressive towards her, were she to be released back in Columbus, especially at or near the nest site.

So, for now she remains in limbo while we evaluate all the options for release.  We'll continue to post here as the outcome is determined.

It is great news that Blaze is able to fly again. It is also good that all options are being taken into consideration before she is released.

[MAK]

That's quite the dilemma! I hope it all works out for Blaze. 

[Dumpsterkitty]

A new update from Donna Daniel on the blog today. Here is the part of the update which relates to Blaze:

Blaze remains in rehab.  She is doing quite well and has recovered from the keel issue and is now fully capable of flight.  At least on paper, she is ready to be released.  But timing is everything in these cases and unfortunately, timing is not good for Blaze.  The quandary is, when she was grounded and taken in for evaluation, she had not yet learned to hunt on her own.   She has been gone from the territory for an extended length of time during a key period in the nesting cycle (when the juveniles become independent of the adults) that there is a definite concern with releasing her back in the downtown area.  As mentioned above, Durand and Spark have shifted gears from raising youngsters to bonding with each other and the site so they probably would no longer provide food for Blaze.  In fact, there is the possibility that they might even consider her an intruder into the territory and could be aggressive towards her, were she to be released back in Columbus, especially at or near the nest site.

So, for now she remains in limbo while we evaluate all the options for release.  We'll continue to post here as the outcome is determined.

It is great news that Blaze is able to fly again. It is also good that all options are being taken into consideration before she is released.

Well, that's what happened with Jemison so he was released in the fall in Montezuma. We can only hope she does well...

[And I still personally believe it was him who stopped by the nestbox after Orion fledged in 2012. Just sayin']

[AlisonL]

An update on Blaze was posted on the blog by Donna Daniel:

Monday, August 18, 2014

Blaze Flying to a New Facility

Well, not literally...but today we transferred Blaze (via automobile!) to another wildlife rehabilitation facility in Ohio.  The first order of business will be a week or two of observation and then if all checks out OK, she will be flight conditioned and offered live prey to learn her hunting skills.

Many, many thanks to Betty Ross and the staff at Glen Helen Raptor Center for caring for her up to now.  And thanks in advance to the staff at the Ohio Bird Sanctuary who will handle the next chapter in her care.  We truly appreciate the partnerships and teamwork amongst these dedicated wildlife rehabilitation professionals!



Meanwhile, downtown, Durand and Spark continue to maintain their territory.  There have been no sightings of the juveniles that I am aware of and it is possible that they may have left the Columbus area by now.   We are hoping for an update on the status of the building work soon.

I hope everything will go well for Blaze as she begins the next stage of her recovery.