Buckeye, believed to be one of the country's oldest and most prolific peregrine falcons, died last week after apparently striking a building near its urban nest on the Terminal Tower.
A woman walking at the intersection of West Third Street and Huron Avenue discovered the injured male on the sidewalk and called Harvey Webster, director of wildlife resources at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Webster said the unidentified woman managed to scoop up the bird and rush it to the museum. But Buckeye was dead by the time she arrived, said Webster, the overseer of the falcons' nesting box 12 floors above Public Square.
"He had a heck of a life and an incredible run during his 12 years on the Terminal Tower," Webster said.
Buckeye was 14 years old, having hatched in 1996 atop the Rhodes Office Tower in downtown Columbus. Officers with Ohio's Division of Natural Resources attached an identifying leg band on the chick before he left the nest.
As an adult, he flew north and spent two years on the Case Western Reserve University campus before pairing up with a female, Zenith, on the downtown Cleveland skyscraper.
In 2001, a second female, hatched in Pittsburgh and identified only as S/W, arrived in Cleveland and killed Zenith. She then joined Buckeye at the nest.
Between the two females, Buckeye sired 34 peregrine chicks, an amazing accomplishment for a species that was endangered for decades, Webster said.
Buckeye was getting old, but he hadn't missed a beat incubating the eggs or providing food for his chicks, Webster said.
Webster speculated that Buckeye's fatal collision might have come during an aerial battle with another male. The falcons can dive at up to 200 mph.
The males may have been battling for S/W's affections. The past weekend, downtown falcon watchers had observed S/W in the company of a new male. He has a leg band, but no one has been able to read its identification numbers yet.
Webster said Cleveland's falcon enthusiasts aren't as willing as S/W to adopt the interloper. They had become attached to Buckeye over the years, and have been mourning, he said. (sounds familiar)
Many Buckeye fans have been posting tributes on-line, and Scott Wright -- who dubbed him "Mr. B" -- downloaded dozens of photographs that he shot of the bird from close range.
http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php
