Millie Finds a New Home, Family in Michigan
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Courtesy of AllisonL over at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Falconcam forum and our own Falconcam member Donna comes some welcome news regarding Millie, daughter of Freedom and Purity from 2005. Allison writes:
Millie, a daughter of Freedom and his first mate Purity, [hatched] in 2005, is now at the Monroe Power Plant in Michigan. Freedom, of course, is a son of Mariah and Kaver from their first year together, 2002.
Millie’s new mate is Leopold, who is now 14 years old and has been at this nest since 1997. It was reported last year that he had flown into a wire and had been euthanized, but this turned out not to be the case. I believe that the falcon involved was Leopold’s long-time mate, Raynie.
Millie’s former mate is/was Swifty, a son of Freedom and Roosevelt at the Fort Wayne nest. Leopold is a brother of Erie, the former mate of Dorothy at the Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning nest.
Leopold and Millie had two [eyases] this year; Heidi and Tyson. One of them appears to be missing. From an update:
We had 20 chicks born this year in SE Michigan (that we are aware of anyway), 17 of which lived long enough to attempt first flight and were successful (we lost all three chicks at 12 days of age from our Whittier Apartments site in Detroit – cause unknown), as of today (7-19-2009) we can account for 12 of these young Peregrines still alive (no carcasses have been found, however we are not able to find 2 at Blue Water Bridge, 1 at UofD Mercy, 1 at Monroe Powerplant, and our only Flint produced falcon ‘Maize’).
Allison received her information from a post on the Macomb County Peregrine Falcon Page. Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be any further word about Ihteram, who had nested at St. Joseph’s Cathederal near Detroit in 2008, but was unable to nest there again this year due to changes at the site that closed off access to the bell tower where she and her mate had nested.
You may recall our previous news about Millie’s appearance in Ohio, but this past year we learned that Millie had left the Ohio site and her whereabouts were unknown. It’s wonderful to know that she’s found a new home and is carrying forward the rich heritage of the Rochester falcons. Millie is the older sister of Archer, and it appears that her new mate Leopold is the brother of Beauty’s father, Erie. So that makes Leopold Beauty’s uncle!
Wow, the family tree is getting really complicated!
September 4th, 2009 at 11:12 AM
This news is especially sweet as we sometimes tend to assume the worst when a PF disappears from her/his home or is driven out but then you read something like this and you realize that they can and do survive. I remember earlier this year reading about a PF found nesting in the US somewhere – forgive me for not remembering who it was-that hadn’t been heard of in 9 years and suddenly turned up at a site with a mate. It gives me hope that someday we may again hear about Ihteram, Freedom and who knows maybe even Kaver!
September 4th, 2009 at 1:06 PM
HELP! Anyone out there with geneology tree experience that is willing to chart the history of the Rochester falcons and their offspring /relatives???? I would love to see a complete chart of all of the various reported sightings and locations.
September 4th, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Great idea! And I hadn’t heard about the falcon that turned up after 9 years. That does give us hope!
September 4th, 2009 at 3:14 PM
@ Joyce.
You can find (but I know you are looking for more info) a genealogy tree of the Rochester falcons and their offspring (not relatives) here on Imprints, checking Archive for April, 2008, Mariah’s Family Tree at
http://rfalconcam.com/rfc-main/assets/familyTree.jpg.
But Jess will respond way better than me. 🙂
BTW a big thank you, Jess for all and everything! 😀
September 4th, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Kim is right, but so is Joyce. The family tree on the Rochester Falconcam is a couple of years out of date, but more than that it’s a static graphic that doesn’t have much room for expansion.
For a few years now we’ve wanted to publish an interactive genealogy of the Rochester Falcons. Problem is no one here has much experience with genealogies and there always seems to be something else that takes precedence over putting the effort into building one. We haven’t given up on the idea though, so if anyone has any advice drop us a line!
September 4th, 2009 at 5:24 PM
Thanks for this good news, AllisonL! It was an elementary school class from Michigan who named Freedom. Geesh, those kids are probably in college by now.
Couldn’t help noticing the three (High Falls-like) smokestacks at the power plant. Coincidence or inherited memory? You decide. *insert theramin music here* 😉
September 4th, 2009 at 8:34 PM
I was thinking the same thing, chrissy-smokestacks does seem to be a recurring theme! Millie’s not that far from her original nest site…25 miles (by car) from Oregon OH to Monroe MI, so a bit closer as the peregrine flies 😉
September 4th, 2009 at 10:07 PM
OK-the relative who handles my family’s genealogy stuff recommended a program-I’ll give it a try with the info I have…I’ll let you all know how it goes 🙂
September 5th, 2009 at 7:20 AM
I know Juanita Woods is very skilled about and built several falcon family trees.
You may contact her at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Falconcam forum. 😉
September 5th, 2009 at 6:34 PM
Thank-you for your efforts, ei. I will look forward to seeing the result. Kim is right, Juanita Woods, who has posted here as has her twin sister Rita, is an excellent resource.
Hi Kim in Italy, long time no read! Since last we wrote to each other on a falcon site I have moved from Austria.
September 5th, 2009 at 7:50 PM
Trust Juanita and Rita Woods, they are the best in building falcon genealogies, way better, I think, than any program stuff!
Hi Alison now in Indiana! I well remember the time we wrote to each other on a falcon site.. time flies.. 🙂
September 8th, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Kathy wrote above:
“I remember earlier this year reading about a PF found nesting in the US somewhere – forgive me for not remembering who it was-that hadn’t been heard of in 9 years and suddenly turned up at a site with a mate. It gives me hope that someday we may again hear about Ihteram, Freedom and who knows maybe even Kaver!”
I believe the peregrine you are thinking of may be Bravo, who was born at the Terminal Tower in Cleveland in 1999, and was not heard of for ten years. This year he was identified nesting on a bridge in Pittsburgh – he had been there for some time, but it was not until this year that his bands were read. He and his mate had three chicks this year.
Sometimes it is several years before a juvie is seen again. This year also, Spirit from Hilliard Road Bridge in Cleveland, born 2004, turned up in Montreal with a mate, Roger, and they had two chicks. She had not been seen for five years. Her brother from the same clutch, Pulse, was not seen from 2004 until 2007, when he turned up at Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Sadly, he was killed by Erie in a territorial battle at the nest box.
I hope we will hear good news of Ihteram, Freedom and most of all, Kaver.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:10 AM
Who might sport a black over green band of S32? The list of Midwest falcons does not have an entry (according to Laura of the Indianapolis falconcam), maybe it is an east coast falcon that has been seen in Terre Haute.
September 9th, 2009 at 9:18 AM
whoops my mistake : S34
“The band we could read was S34 – black over green.
http://www.f-11.us/photos/details.php?image_id=7120&mode=search
http://www.f-11.us/photos/details.php?image_id=7118&mode=search“
September 11th, 2009 at 1:26 PM
Please, moderate my previous comment so some one can tell me if S34 black and green is an East Coast falcon.
September 12th, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Alison-I’ll have to do some searching-I found some stuff back when Tybropa-Cree first arrived on which regions use which colors etc., but I can’t seem to locate the links right now…
September 16th, 2009 at 12:34 AM
Alison, The international banding protocol c/p’d from the USGS site at Patuxent . .
Red Captive bred
Black/red bicolor Eastern United States
Black/green bicolor Eastern United States
Blue Tundra Peregrines
Black/blue bicolor Tundra or Anatum captured off the breeding grounds or subspecies unknown
Green Peale’s Peregrines
Black Anatum Peregrine
So, S34 is an Eastern falcon. You can report the band on the USGS site but I’m not sure they’ll report back to you unless you’re a conservation official.
September 16th, 2009 at 2:58 PM
I was sort of hoping that one of the citizen scientists here had old lists of banding from her/his favorite sites…
But thanks for the info. I imagine the Indy DNR folks are following up on S34. It just would have been more exciting if one of us had the “dope”.
September 17th, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Alison-are you asking about the peregrine on the right in the pictures? If so, for sure an eastern bird with a silver band…mid-west USFWS bands are usually purple. And, if so, I believe it’s a 2008 hatch year just molting into it’s adult feathers…the lower chest/belly still appears to be vertically striped and brownish while the rest of the feathers appear adult. That would narrow the choices a lot…I’ll see what I can find at home.
September 29th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Alison in Indiana says:
“Please, moderate my previous comment so some one can tell me if S34 black and green is an East Coast falcon.”
Alison, I believe that S/34 would be a midwest falcon. The banding protocol info is not quite correct – I think they have actually duplicated the “Eastern United States” listing. Black/red bands are Eastern, while black/green are midwest birds. It is true that midwest birds usually have a purple band on the right leg, so I’m not sure why this one is silver.
Many Ohio falcons have bands with S/over a number – including some numbers in the S/20s. My first guess would be an Ohio bird; next would be possibly Wisconsin, or even Michigan. Iowa and Illinois have also used a few of the S numbers.
Just looked at the photos – this looks like a juvie, born this year. I think last year’s juvies would probably have at least most of their adult feathers by now. But I notice that the black/green band is on the right leg, and the silver band is on the left; usually it’s the other way round.
I have searched through old reports, etc., but so far haven’t been able to find this band number. I’ll keep looking, and hope someone will be able to identify this bird.
I remember you from the old Kodak forum – I used to post there too.