MANCHESTER – A fluffy, pudgy quintet of Peregrine falcon fledglings made their debut this morning at Brady-Sullivan Tower.
It was time for the birds, hatched three weeks ago in a nest box on the 13th floor of the 1750 Elm St. building, to be banded with U.S. Fish and Wildlife identification numbers.
Christian J. Martin, senior biologist with New Hampshire Audubon, unlocked the wooden nesting box tucked into a narrow ledge by a concrete balustrade. With gloved hand, he reached in and gently removed each of the fledglings and placed them in a cardboard box where they nestled together.
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One bird appeared in shock, its bill gaping open but not a sound coming out. Some of the others squawked loudly but otherwise the transport went smoothly, particularly because mother and father falcons, both of whom feed their young, were nowhere in sight.
The birds were taken to a meeting room one floor down where they were placed on a yellow blanket on the floor. The largest, a female, quickly tried to make a crawling getaway.
"They have no clue about flying," Martin had explained earlier about the three-week-old birds. The female was quickly scooped up and became the first to be banded - a silver metal tag on one leg, a green tag on the other.
The four other fuzzballs waited on the blanket. One plopped down, legs spread, eyes peering out at about 20 volunteers, Audubon staffers, photographers and reporters. "He's like Buddha sitting there," someone quipped. "They're so cool," said another woman. Everyone was snapping pictures.
One of the fledglings rigidly stood on skinny legs, with his wings held back, looking not unlike a haunched old woman with her hands turned backwards on her hips. Occasionally, the birds let out a squawk. Some peered directly into all those cameras and faces.
Once banded, the female was put back into the cardboard box. She appeared a bit lonesome; afterall, it was the first time since busting out of her egg that she'd been in a space without her siblings.
Martin, with the help of others, continued on with the banding. At three weeks of age, the falcons' sex is indicated by their legs, Martin said. If they are thinner than a pencil, then the bird is a male; thicker, it's female. It turned out the quintuplets are four boys and a girl.
"This is the highlight of my day," said Mike Bartlett, president of the N.H. Audubon Society, as he helped band one of the falcons. With the banding complete, he picked up the bird and placed him back down on the blanket. "Don't drop it. Don't step on it," cautioned Martin.
Bartlett said it was exciting to handle the bird, which is an endangered species.
"This is the most exciting thing I have ever done in 37 years in wildlife," he said. Bartlett was formerly director of the New England office for U.S. Fish and Wildlife. "They're beautiful, just beautiful birds."
Bartlett said it was nice to be at a happy event concerning birds since a study of New Hampshire's species has found a third in decline, including the purple finch, the state bird.
It took about an hour to band the five falcons. Now it was time for Martin and falcon biologist Robert Valliers to put them back in the box nest.
People gathered at the windows on the floor directly below the nesting box as Martin and Valliers made the trek to the 13th floor to return the fledglings. Within minutes, the mother falcon was swooping outside the tower and heading for the box.
As Martin was putting the third fledgling back the upset mother falcon landed with a thud at the box.
"We had to use a short-handled broom to push her out of the box," he said. The remaining fledglings were quickly put inside and the box locked.
A half-hour later, mother falcon was in the box watching over her babies who were huddled together, fast asleep.
The falcon family can be viewed live at:
http://www.spectraaccess.com/falcon2/camera3.html
