From Chad and Chris
What a story, what a tragedy!
Once again, thanks for your patience with my overly descriptive narratives, friends!
An emotional roller coaster at this site today. Thursday morning started with little promise, as I arrived at first light and saw GG on the outside arch with prey. She called and looked around and flew it up to one food begging juvie inside the bridge. This turned out to be the unbanded male, and he’s the only one that I could account through 10AM. I combed through what I could of the woods underneath and to the south of the I-90 and Hilliard bridges. Didn’t catch any glimpses of Madness and started to wonder if she literally climbed up to the inside top of the bridge to die. Was feeling disheartened at this point, so I decided to go and check a few other fairly close nest sites (Mittal and Bohn).
Returned to this site again in the early afternoon. Crossed the river (thankfully, it’s low due to the lack of rain, and my water shoes are holding up well) to again check the area near the sheer cliff leading up to where we last saw Madness. As I arrived at the top of the bridge, I was pleasantly surprised to see a juvie perched on the low south railing part of Hilliard. Hadn’t brought the camera to hike through the steep woods and wasn’t close enough to tell who it was, so I hiked back down and crossed the river to my car, and then drove up to check the juv out from on top. My mood perked up, as I heard a juvie calling in the bridge area that wasn’t the same one that was on the bridge railing, so I knew there were still at least two.
From the top of the bridge, discovered that the juvie was the male. Around this time Chad was on his way to meet me here (around 3:30) and I decided to hike through the woods below once again. I was thrilled to see Madness walking out and trying to go up the steep embankment between the bridges. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get her footing and kept slipping back down. I stayed low and hidden so that she wouldn’t scare back into the unreachable area underneath Hilliard, and then I looped far away from her to walk back up to the top to see if I can see her walking up (their instinct is always to try to get higher, so I figured she’d try to come up). Couldn’t get any looks at her from this perspective and feared that she wasn’t able to make it up the steep dirt, so I went back down. Called Chad to let him know I was going to try to get a look from the south side, and Chad planned to stay near the top on the north side. As I went down and around, looking for anything that resembled a falcon (and believe me, any lump of dirt, rocks, stumps, or branches can look like a juvie when you want so badly to find them), Madness was casually perched facing me as I looked up on a fallen section of a tree. She was easy to grab, but was loud and feisty as I held her. I called Chad and he got a carrier to meet me on my way back up with her. As I crossed a section of exposed dirt underneath I-90, both GG and Titan circled and kekked at me as Madness screeched and flapped in my grasp. FYI—Laura from the MRC taught us how to hold a raptor by the legs with an index finger between them so that the legs don’t rub together and risk injury to the bird, which has been helpful over our time of doing this.
Got Madness into the carrier and Laura was able to meet me halfway. We figured that Laura could further assess Madness, hydrate and feed her, and we could work on placing Madness onto a ledge where the adults would provide food. We can’t get her high enough here for the adults to come to her level to feed, and Madness (likely because of her bad experiences with Diana, wouldn’t fly to GG for food that GG was offering). I think I have a lead on a cherry picker truck, though, that could get us where we need to go with her.
Anyway, Chad remained at the bridge for awhile and called me as I was on my way back from meeting up with Laura. Chad saw the dark female, Smolder fly and land into the wooded section between the bike path and the river. Chad spotted Paul, a friend and wildlife watcher/photographer in the park down below, and while Chad drove down and underneath Paul had located her about 30 feet up in a tree. Before I got there she tried to fly, but ended up down deeper into the woods with no place to fly out. Chad retrieved her and we met on top of the bridge to try the soft release with her again.
So, at this point I was thrilled—three of the four accounted for, with Madness getting what she needs in the good and capable hands of the MRC.
We did the soft release, positioning the carrier on the west end overlook. Smolder walked out, and at first didn’t show much interest in flying. She occasionally got excited when she heard or saw her brother or an adult. The male was on the bridge railing as we were preparing to release Smolder. He didn’t remain there long, and without hesitation took off back toward the valley (which we’re always glad to see when a newly fledged juvie seems to get the hang of not going into the roadway).
Chad had to leave for a night work shift, so I stuck around with Smolder. Wondered if she might not have wanted to fly toward me, as she aimed herself the other direction. So, I got on the other side of her so that she could take off away from me. At around 7:30 she flew, but only made a short flight to the bridge railing to the east of the cubby. I positioned myself between her and the road, as she was bobbing toward traffic (they bob their heads to get a sense of depth perception before taking off). It worked a little, as she walked and hop-flew from west to east on the railing. Then she took off, at first looping out over the valley. But then, a mistake that proved fatal—she looped back toward the bridge, slowed as if she was going to land on the bridge railing further down, and she ended up landing in the second lane of traffic with a busy strand of cars driving through. A car in the second lane ran right over her just after she landed and she was dead instantly.
I retrieved her body, and I’m not embarrassed to admit I was pretty tearful. Took her down below Hilliard bridge and placed her into the woods. Saw our friend Patrick just afterward, who had been watching the adults and the male juvie from down below the bridge. Thanks Patrick for your kind reassurances at a time I needed it.
I’m not trying to be melodramatic, but I just need to try to express this. I can tell myself all of the logical things: All you can do is try to help; The odds are stacked against their success, especially during their first year; if one of these four make it to adulthood it will be an overall success; You can’t control the decisions that they make (and they don’t know the dangers of traffic); at least she had a chance to live for a short time in the wild; at least she died instantly and didn’t suffer, etc., etc. Still can’t help but to have a heavy heart tonight for this beautiful gal. So, one thing we can always count on in monitoring these guys… the roller coaster will continue, and there will be more “ups” to look forward to!
