Bird identified!

[Paul Hamilton]

I finally managed to identify my bird, and have submitted the information to the Bird Banding Laboratory!  Thanks to Steve Faccio of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and Margaret Fowle of Vermont Audubon, I confirmed that my local peregrine is 9/C, hatched in 1997 on a wild cliff face overlooking the Connecticut River on the Fairlee Palisades in Vermont.  In August of 2001, she traveled to Lac Lyster, Quebec, where she was trapped and released by a bander. Within the 20-year database of banded PEFAs that they have been working with, there are 2 records of 14 yo birds, one of which was recovered dead and the other was confirmed breeding in NH.  Curiously, another VT-banded bird was sighted at the same bridge in March 2007.  This one, V/0 (black/green), also a female, was banded at Mt Horrid in central VT in 2002.  Also, as of 2009, 9/C's sister 8/Y was nesting in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Band identifications are surprisingly difficult.  Out of many hundreds of images, only one picture showed the band clearly enough to read. 

Paul

[Donna]

I finally managed to identify my bird, and have submitted the information to the Bird Banding Laboratory!  Thanks to Steve Faccio of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and Margaret Fowle of Vermont Audubon, I confirmed that my local peregrine is 9/C, hatched in 1997 on a wild cliff face overlooking the Connecticut River on the Fairlee Palisades in Vermont.  In August of 2001, she traveled to Lac Lyster, Quebec, where she was trapped and released by a bander. Within the 20-year database of banded PEFAs that they have been working with, there are 2 records of 14 yo birds, one of which was recovered dead and the other was confirmed breeding in NH.  Curiously, another VT-banded bird was sighted at the same bridge in March 2007.  This one, V/0 (black/green), also a female, was banded at Mt Horrid in central VT in 2002.  Also, as of 2009, 9/C's sister 8/Y was nesting in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Band identifications are surprisingly difficult.  Out of many hundreds of images, only one picture showed the band clearly enough to read. 

Paul

Way to go Paul! Love hearing where they are from. Good job, thanks!

[Patti from Kentucky]

I finally managed to identify my bird, and have submitted the information to the Bird Banding Laboratory!  .......
 This one, V/0 (black/green), also a female, was banded at Mt Horrid in central VT in 2002.  Also, as of 2009, 9/C's sister 8/Y was nesting in Wilkes-Barre, PA.

Paul

Nice that you were finally able to get an ID.  And I love the name Mt. Horrid.  Having hiked in Vermont I can easily imagine how a mountain would be called that, however.  There are several Vermont mountains I would nominate for that name.

[jeanne]

She's a beauty!  So glad you were able to ID her, Paul!!!!

[Paul Hamilton]

Steve Faccio, Vermont Center for Ecostudies, in reply to my photo of 9/C: 

Hi Paul,
What a good looking lady -- she definitely takes after her mother!  We know little about her parents' origins, since they were both unbanded, but I can tell you that she comes from good stock.  Her mother was the resident female at the Fairlee Palisades for at least 11 years (hard to know exactly since she wasn't banded) and holds the record as the most productive bird in Vermont's post-DDT population.  She nested successfully every year that she was present, producing at least 35 fledglings, for an average productivity of 3.2 chicks/year! Her last year nesting was 2006. 

I banded chicks at Fairlee nearly every year that she was present, and after 4 or 5 years she began to get comfortable with us rappeling to the nest ledge.  In 2003, as I was preparing to band the chicks, she landed right next to me and watched the entire process!  In 2004 she did it again.  I've attached a photo of her from our 2004 encounter.  Just to reinforce how old 9/C is, I have no photos of her as a nestling because I didn't have a digital camera at that time!

An odd coincidence is that one of 9/C's brothers (there were 3 chicks in 1997; 1F, 2M) has been the resident male at the Cross Valley Expressway Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, PA since 1998.  As far as I know, he was there through 2009, which is the extent of our database, so he may still be there.  Weird that 2 chicks from one natural nest wound up nesting at bridges.

I've also attached our most recent newsletter which briefly summarizes results from our 20 years of banding data in one of the cover stories, along with a much more detailed report to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (if you're interested).  A manuscript from that report is also being prepared for submission to the Journal of Raptor Research.

Thanks for your info and interest in Peregrines.

Best,
Steve

[carly]

An odd coincidence is that one of 9/C's brothers (there were 3 chicks in 1997; 1F, 2M) has been the resident male at the Cross Valley Expressway Bridge in Wilkes-Barre, PA since 1998.  As far as I know, he was there through 2009, which is the extent of our database, so he may still be there.  Weird that 2 chicks from one natural nest wound up nesting at bridges.


OMG OMG!!!  I recognized the bridge name through researching Jack's history!!!  If this is Route 309 then he is Hamilton Madame X's Father and my Jack's Great Grandfather!!!  Any way we could find that out for sure - before I get too excited..lol..in case there is more than one nest site on the bridge??

Here is Madame X's info from the Hamilton website!

It has been learned that Madame X was hatched on a bridge on Pennsylvania Route 309, the Cross-Valley Expressway in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Banded as a hatchling on 7 June 1999 she was known to the falcon watchers in Northeast PA as 'Runaround Sue', a name suggested after she was found running along the expressway guide wall one morning.

[valhalla]

Great news, Paul!

I can't help but chuckle at the thought of Mariah landing next to the banders and watching the process.   

[Paul Hamilton]

Carly,

The people in Pennsylvania say that it's 9/C's sister, not brother,  8/Y, who has nested at the Cross Valley Expressway Bridge. http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/738856/71501-08z_pdf?qid=11984464&rank=2

This report has information on the 8/Y and her mate, *P/5, a 1996 hacked release from WIlliamsport, PA (page 180).

http://www.pabirds.org/PABIRDS/BackIssues/PBV12N4.pdf

Here is a story from Madame X's early days:

http://www.dvrconline.org/xvalley.html

Paul

[carly]

Thanks for the info and the links Paul, I really appreciate it.  I will print them out and read them tonight when I'm home!  It's been hard to find any past info on Madame X so this will be a great help.  So it's great grandma then not great grandpa

[dale]

All very cool. Mt. Horrid and all.

1997!  Old bird!

That photo of the Fairlee female is pretty funny if you know she's watching a banding. "Apparently innocuous, but dumb, really really dumb," is what she seems to be thinking.

Good work, Paul, and absolutely stunning photo.

[valhalla]

That photo of the Fairlee female is pretty funny if you know she's watching a banding. "Apparently innocuous, but dumb, really really dumb," is what she seems to be thinking.