Buffalo Falcon News 2013

[Donna]

Trying to get update on Bailey.

Thanks, hope all is well!

[Kris G.]

Trying to get update on Bailey.

Thanks, hope all is well!

Their FB page says- Bailey is okay and will be home by tomorrow! Yea!

[MAK]

Trying to get update on Bailey.

Thanks, hope all is well!

Their FB page says- Bailey is okay and will be home by tomorrow! Yea!

Woohoo! 

[Annette]

Trying to get update on Bailey.

Thanks, hope all is well!

Their FB page says- Bailey is okay and will be home by tomorrow! Yea!

[~Sage~]

Roger and I went first to UB, then CT, then Joyce texted she had arrived at UB. We went back to meet her, not knowing yet when Bailey was being returned. How cool is this? We 3 arrived just as the SPCA was taking Bailey out of the car, and Ken right there too!

After release, Bailey flew over to Clark where she practiced wing-flapping for a few hours before returning to MacKay Tower. She then took off across the campus, across Bailey Avenue, and perched atop the water tower next to the VA Hospital.

At the same time, the last little girl who the parents had been over-feeding, came straight down from the perch, landing on an awning below.  We went to the base of the tower, a tight little area of facilities buildings, and the guys were all pulling in and out at shift end, vans and trucks passing within a few feet of Mackay, nervous enough as it was. Then all the workers starting coming around and trying to go closer to the baby for pictures! Noise, commotion, poor little frightened Pefa, not knowing how to escape! She was surrounded by buildings higher than where she was and they were way to close.

I called the DEC and Jacquie was dispatched to the scene. While I was still on the phone, Mackay came to ground among all the vehicles, and she started running around. Many garage bay doors were open and as she headed for them we tried to block her from one after another.  Joyce grabbed a towel and we eventually got her cornered and Joyce was able to get her, then to the rescue box in our Prius. Joyce got the towel separated from Mackay and I gave her a few spritzes. She had a rough afternoon so far!

More on next post and maybe Joyce will continue!  Meanwhile, lots of pix on FBPP~

[Kris G.]

Roger and I went first to UB, then CT, then Joyce texted she had arrived at UB. We went back to meet her, not knowing yet when Bailey was being returned. How cool is this? We 3 arrived just as the SPCA was taking Bailey out of the car, and Ken right there too!

After release, Bailey flew over to Clark where she practiced wing-flapping for a few hours before returning to MacKay Tower. She then took off across the campus, across Bailey Avenue, and perched atop the water tower next to the VA Hospital.

At the same time, the last little girl who the parents had been over-feeding, came straight down from the perch, landing on an awning below.  We went to the base of the tower, a tight little area of facilities buildings, and the guys were all pulling in and out at shift end, vans and trucks passing within a few feet of Mackay, nervous enough as it was. Then all the workers starting coming around and trying to go closer to the baby for pictures! Noise, commotion, poor little frightened Pefa, not knowing how to escape! She was surrounded by buildings higher than where she was and they were way to close.

I called the DEC and Jacquie was dispatched to the scene. While I was still on the phone, Mackay came to ground among all the vehicles, and she started running around. Many garage bay doors were open and as she headed for them we tried to block her from one after another.  Joyce grabbed a towel and we eventually got her cornered and Joyce was able to get her, then to the rescue box in our Prius. Joyce got the towel separated from Mackay and I gave her a few spritzes. She had a rough afternoon so far!

More on next post and maybe Joyce will continue!  Meanwhile, lots of pix on FBPP~

Quite a day for all of you! 

[Donna]

  She has feet like Rosetta! Guess it is pretty common!  Thanks for all your rescue efforts!

[margaret]

  She has feet like Rosetta! Guess it is pretty common!  Thanks for all your rescue efforts!

Can someone explain the blue foot thing we are seeing this year?  I've been following  (lurking?)  for a number of years, and I haven't seen this blue foot phenomenon that we are seeing this year.   And they are not changing?  Who can shed more light on this  strange thing we are seeing?

[Dumpsterkitty]

  She has feet like Rosetta! Guess it is pretty common!  Thanks for all your rescue efforts!

Can someone explain the blue foot thing we are seeing this year?  I've been following  (lurking?)  for a number of years, and I haven't seen this blue foot phenomenon that we are seeing this year.   And they are not changing?  Who can shed more light on this  strange thing we are seeing?

I very much respect our experts who have weighed in on this, but I just can't accept that a newly hatched eyas fresh out of it's shell is deficient in carotene or sunlight. If the feet had turned blue after hatching, yes, but not born with it. That is a documented phenomenon in adults, though.

So, I believe it's a genetic variant. It may seem more prevalent this year, but it probably happens more than we realize. M&K probably didn't have the recessive gene, so we never saw it here before. UB has a new female. This is Beauty & Dot.ca's first large group, so genetic variations would start to be expressed.

The first time I recall seeing this was quite a few years ago. It was either Dundas (who ultimately lost a foot to injury) or in his first nesting.

What I'm really curious about is what color their feet will be as adults.

[carly]

Good write up kitty...you know Dundas and DotCa are related.  Dundas was Madame X's son and DotCa's dad was Madame X's son...sooooo a family gene?!  (MadameX had different mates in at the time so I'd say the gene is in her line not the males if this is indeed the case)

[Dumpsterkitty]

Good write up kitty...you know Dundas and DotCa are related.  Dundas was Madame X's son and DotCa's dad was Madame X's son...sooooo a family gene?!  (MadameX had different mates in at the time so I'd say the gene is in her line not the males if this is indeed the case)

I didn't have time to do the full research this morning, but I thought Dundas was a Hamilton hatch.

[Donna]

Found this:
Has anyone an idea why they are blue, why sometimes they came out yellow and blue in the same clutch and are there other subspecies of Peregrines which have also blue hands and are 100 % pure Peregrines?
Also I have heard and I don´t know if it´s true, that in the States where made DNA tests with Peales from the wild and it turned out that they had gyrgenes inside?

As for feet coloring, so much of that is genetics, plain and simple. Its sort of like talking about eye color in adult Goshawks. Sure, a lot of them are red, but a lot are not. There are, of course, ways you can attempt to enhance the yellowing of the feet and we all that chicken heads or docs are good at bringing on color to a birds food that is less than bright or yellow, as does sunlight play a role as well in the production of carotene pigments in their feet. But sometimes these attempts simply fall on deaf ears so to speak, because the genetics of the bird will only allow them to color out in their time. Otherwise even at wild nests we would see nothing but yellow feet, which of course on Peale's and some other Peregrine subspecies we do not see this all the time.

The color of feet varies in passage tundra peregrines, I was told diet plays a role in the determining color. Some I saw were slightly greenish, others were very yellow and some were greyish.

If blue feet, genuinely blue feet, occur in certain peregrine subspecies, but not, or only very rarely in peregrinus peregrinus, I'm interested to understand why.
I'm unconvinced by the argument that it's entirely food related, and believe early stage 'blue footedness' to be a genetic trait.
Unfortunately I've never discovered the origins of Blaine's 'Bluefoot', although of course there's every chance it might have been an american import, perhaps even a peales, but it occurs to me that blue footed peregrines were noteworthy at that time.
Since Blaine's time, captive breeding has brought together peregrines of various sub-species, not to mention falcons of differing species, and it seems we might get some indication through captive breeding, of one possible origin of blue feet in peregrines, and a better understanding of the peregrine herself.

Hi Greg, I can definately help you on this one, eyass peregrines have yellow leggs. The saturation of the yellow can be different depending upon prey availability. Its the same with the cere, bright yellow. Many years ago when I was on shap I can across a falconer with a cadge of what I thought were peregrines; these bird were different in one respect, they all had blue/grey legs. I was told the birds were all hybrids but not sure of the other parent.

Saw a group of young in a nest last year in the Aleutian Islands with one blue feet, one green feet, and one yellow footed Tiercel. So there you go, it is down to the phenotype of individual bird and nothing more.

From Birds of Prey talk:

Seems no one really knows and all have their own ideas.

[Bonnie]

I'm sure Rosetta won't be discriminated against because of her blue feet.  At least we will be able to ID her, with or without a band.  She can join Blue Man Group.

[Dumpsterkitty]

And Kris found this (excerpt) from Hamilton banding day 2007

Tuesday June 5, 2007
Audrey Gamble reports: Banding Day!

The first chick was brought inside the hotel and weighed and banded. Her overall condition was fairly good and although smaller than her sister, she had a reasonable body weight. Notable were her blue feet*

*Usually by the time the chicks are banded their feet have already turned from blue to the yellow characteristic of the adults. Falcon Watchers particularly remember Harvard, one of the male chicks in 2005. Harvey still had his distinctive blue feet long after fledge

I guess Madame X is for sure the genetic key to this puzzle!

[Bird Crazy]

And Kris found this (excerpt) from Hamilton banding day 2007

Tuesday June 5, 2007
Audrey Gamble reports: Banding Day!

The first chick was brought inside the hotel and weighed and banded. Her overall condition was fairly good and although smaller than her sister, she had a reasonable body weight. Notable were her blue feet*

*Usually by the time the chicks are banded their feet have already turned from blue to the yellow characteristic of the adults. Falcon Watchers particularly remember Harvard, one of the male chicks in 2005. Harvey still had his distinctive blue feet long after fledge

I guess Madame X is for sure the genetic key to this puzzle!

I think she has a Peales Falcon in her background. from Wikipedia

"Immature birds are overall very dark, having little to no buff colored edging to the feathers of the mantle. Nearly completely dark heads and very heavily streaked ventral markings. Retrices are usually unbarred. Feet and cere color varies from light blue to light yellow."