Most of our readers probably know by now that Mariah was released from her rehabilitation a couple of weeks ago. Before leaving the veterinary facility near Syracuse where she’d been recuperating the DEC’s Mike Allen took a few pictures to show just how completely she’d healed

          

Wildlife officials at the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation took her to the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge about 40 miles (64km) east of Rochester. As she flew northward Mike Allen got this picture of her taking wing

Before letting her go, Mariah got a nice bit of new jewelry in the form of an aluminum US Fish and Wildlife band. To make her stand out from the falcon crowd, Mariah’s band was tricked out with blue tape and a yellow racing stripe

Since her release, she found her way back to Rochester. If you’ve been keeping up with the reports of our on-site watchers in the FalconWatch blog, you’ll know that she’s been spending a lot of time in the Genesee River gorge below the High Falls. Check back often for the latest updates!

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Speaking of updates, the news on Archer and Beauty is that they’ve apparently moved from the narrow ledge on the Midtown Plaza Tower. It looks like they abandoned any eggs they may have laid. Our watchers haven’t witnessed any nesting-like behavior from the pair for the past several days now. Whether they did lay eggs that failed or didn’t lay any is something we may never learn. The ledge where they’d been spending their time is very narrow and without a bucket truck or some similar conveyance physical access to the ledge is nearly impossible.

So where’d they move to? As it turns out, Archer and Beauty headed a few blocks west and across the river, ending up at the Times Square Building. Astute readers will recall that this is the location where we installed one of our nest boxes this past winter, and outfitted it with a few cameras. We never turned them on because frankly there wasn’t much to be seen. At first watchers reported that the falcons were only landing on the corners of the building, but before too long we began to see them moving toward the nest box, and even going inside.

Yesterday evening Rochester Falconcam team member FalKenn Martinez was at the site working to get the cameras up and running. There are still some technical problems to solve, but now that we know there’s activity at the nest box we’re moving into high gear. While he was working on the high-resolution Main camera, both Archer and Beauty showed up at the nest box! Ken was able to grab a couple of pictures of them, which got stored on the camera controller’s hard disk. Since we’re not yet connected to the Internet there’s no way he could transmit the pictures, but he did the next best thing, snapping pictures right off the monitor screen with his cell phone camera!

     

The image quality leaves a little to be desired, but who cares!?! Archer looks an awful lot like Kaver, doesn’t he? It’s those good genes of his! And that second picture appears to show them bowing to each other. That could indicate that they’re pair bonding. It’s late in the season, but these two are young and healthy, and it’s just possible that they could go through another courtship and mating cycle, and even lay eggs!

Could we be looking at another clutch in the making? It may be that our fledge watchers will yet have an opportunity to practice their skills on the streets of downtown Rochester. We’ll keep working to get the Times Square cameras on-line so that we can all keep an eye on Archer and Beauty at their “new” home.

We have some very good news from our friend Mike Allen at the DEC. First a note released to the Rochester Watchers from June Summers, GVAS.

“Mariah was released on Tue., May 26 at approximately 3:30 p.m. in the Montezuma Wetland Complex. She is in good health and headed North upon release. She has new bling, a US Fish and Wildlife band on her right leg which has been covered with blue tape with a yellow racing stripe in the middle. Carol Phillips commented that, “Mariah is free to be a Peregrine again.” Carol is right, Mariah is back where she belongs in the wild. So please keep your eyes open when you are downtown.”

and this from Mike Allen………………..

“She was released on the Montezuma wetlands complex at approximately 3:30 PM on Tuesday, May 26th. We chose that site (approximately 45 miles from home) because of the diverse food availability there. I would not be surprised if she might take a day or 2 to re-acclimate to the wild before making her next move. As far as the release itself was concerned we were almost looking for smoke from her tail feathers as she came out of the transfer box like her tail was on fire so I can honestly say that she neither hesitated nor struggled to fly..”

Mariah has been banded with a USFW silver band. Mike covered the band in blue tape with a yellow racing stripe. This will make it easier for the Rochester Watchers to ID her if she returns to Rochester.

We here at the Rochester Falconcam would like to thank Mike, the rehabbers, including Gary the original rehabber that was there that fateful Easter Sunday morning, the DEC and all the folks that were involved.

Oh, and by the way, Mike has shared a few pictures with us that I will share with you soon.

Jess

p.s. As far as we know Quest is doing very well. We’ll be posting about her travels soon. Stay tuned!

A Very Important Update!

Mariah arrived at the Kodak Tower sometime Friday morning (5/29/09). Watchers working in nearby buildings reported an adult Falcon flying around the Kodak Tower around 9:00 am.

The Rochester Falcon Watchers that arrived downtown were greeted by a beautiful sight. An adult Falcon flying around the Kodak Tower, soaring over the gorge to chase the pigeons on the High Falls Brewery, chasing Crows off of the lower Kodak buildings and landing in very familiar places. A split wing tip was seen.

Later that evening, scopes were trained on the Peregrine Falcon and a blue band with a yellow racing stripe was seen. Thanks to Mike Allen from the DEC for this thoughtful addition.

Mariah is home.

Jess

Mike Allen from the DEC forwarded this very positive update from Mariah’s caretakers.

“The doctor was here today and we got a very good look at Mariah’s wing and neck. All the scabs on her wing have dropped off and she has beautiful skin that has grown where they were. Her neck has a big scab that is all dried up and is ready to just fall off. The skin underneath looks great. Mariah’s feathers are in perfect condition. When the time comes, we expect it will be a wonderful release. I love these happy ending stories.”

Very good news!

Jess

Mike Allen sends this report from the Veterinary technician caring for Mariah:

The Dr. was here yesterday and checked her over thoroughly. Her wing web is healing nicely and the neck wound is totally scabbed over. We trimmed off some of that flap of loose skin in the top of the wing and it is healing underneath. He will be back next Tuesday and said after that Mariah will be ready to go into an outdoor mew to stretch her wings and exercise.

Yet more good news!

Mike Allen has sent us another update from the vets in Syracuse who are taking care of Mariah…

Mariah is improving every day. The Dr. came here yesterday and reapplied the skin glue to both her neck wound and wing wound. We measured the neck wound and it had decreased in size to 1/2″ X 1/2″. We actually measured it with a ruler. It is very scabbed over and nice new granulation tissue is growing around it. At some point we will remove the torn flap of skin on her patagium, but wanted that to heal better first.

She will continue to have small cage rest for a couple of weeks and then we will move her to an outside mew. I bought a soft, shock absorbing yoga mat and tacked it onto a 10″ wide piece of plywood and covered it with new Astroturf. We are screwing it to the top of a large perch so that she has a flat surface to stand on, since peregrines are cliff dwelling birds.

She loves the fresh quail we got her this week and she readily takes all her Baytril twice daily. She is a wonderful little patient. The doctor also looked at her eyes yesterday and found no visual impairment. We have not x-rayed her since she is showing no signs of any fractures anywhere. Legs, wings, feet etc. are working well. She cast a pellet yesterday that was as long as a lemon. We will keep you posted.

Mike Allen just sent us a news update on Mariah’s condition that he received from her veterinary team on Saturday. The news continues to be good.

Just a note to let you know that the veterinarian was just here to examine Mariah. We are delighted at her progress. We can’t believe how well the wound is healing. It looks so much better than last Tuesday. We now believe that it will heal on its own without stitches.

We removed the bandage and she is now having the neck area covered with an antibiotic/antiseptic wound glue called Facilitator. She checked the puncture wounds on her feet and the tear on her wing webbing. They are healing nicely. She is an excellent patient. I have a hood that fits her well and she is very cooperative in handling her. The doctor took her off the torb (seditive) today, but we will continue with her antibiotics.

The veterinarian will be back to check her around noon on Tue, as he felt it was less stressful on Mariah if I did not transport her into the clinic, so he is willing to come here to treat her. She is in a quiet and calm setting here and we didn’t want to cause any [undue] stress.

I can’t begin to tell you how well she is eating. I have been cutting her food up for her into little [bite] sized pieces, but I think she is ready to eat a whole quail on her own. I will open it up for her, so she can pick it apart by herself. Not only will this be more natural for her, but it will keep her occupied. Tomorrow (Sunday), I am going… to get her some more fresh quail from a friend who raises them and is willing to give us some. I will send you another report after the doctor is here on Tuesday.

We too are delighted to hear that Mariah is making such rapid progress! Our heartfelt thanks go to the team of caring professionals who are taking care of Mariah and to Mike, Barb and everyone at the DEC for keeping us informed.

We’re happy to report the latest news on Mariah, courtesy of DEC Wildlife Technician Mike Allen:

Received another update this morning, Mariah is being a model patient, standing and eating on her own – the veterinarian is planning to do surgery on the throat wound but not until next week. They wanted to make sure she was stable first and at this point there is no rush. That’s all for now but I thought you would like to know she’s doing well.

Mike

Well, that’s excellent news! I don’t think we could hope for any better at this point.

-Jess

Mike Allen sent an email with an update on Mariah’s condition, which we’ve excerpted here.

I thought I’d let you know that Mariah made Syracuse without incident. Our veterinarian examined her closely and was very grateful for the detailed log of what had been done since she was picked up on Sunday. She was quite feisty even after the long trip and the vet tech commented that “feisty is good.” The concern obviously is the wound at her throat. They wanted to give her some time to settle in before examining further. I’m not sure how often I’ll be updating this situation but I will try to do so as frequently as time allows. My interpretation is that she is in excellent hands and has already made “new friends!”

Keep looking up!

Mike

This news is about as good as any we could expect at this point, and we’re very grateful for the update!

You may be wondering why we haven’t posted any Quest updates recently. The news about Mariah has taken precedence for the past several days, but the real issue is a technical one. We’re currently migrating the Rochester Falconcam to new web servers, and a side effect is that we’ve temporarily lost access to the email account where we receive Quest’s transmitter data. As soon as we get that back we’ll update you on Quest’s latest adventures.

Photo courtesy of Carol Phillips

Updated 14 April!
Carol P, Mariah’s own Florence Nightingale, reports that she spent several hours at the rehab center with Mariah this afternoon. She was examined by vets this morning, and they found three wounds: The most serious is a deep chest wound. Fortunately, no internal organs appear to have been damaged. She also has a wound on her back that is 3-4 days old. This is consistent with watchers’ observations, and lends weight to our working theory that the territory battle began sometime on Friday afternoon. The third wound is a laceration on her wing which needs further examination. She also has a minor case of bumblefoot. Carol was able to assist with the treatment for that, applying antibiotic ointment to her feet.

Mariah was standing on her own today and she ate a several bites of quail soaked in Pedialite. This is a definite improvement. Even better, Carol reports that Mariah was tracking their movements, something she wasn’t doing yesterday. The picture above shows the rehabilitation specialist feeding quail to her using a pair of foreceps. She’s undergoing antibiotic therapy and she’ll likely need surgery to repair her wounds. She’s not out of the woods yet, though. The vets are concerned that her feces are black and runny (a possible sign of internal bleeding). The news is certainly a mixed bag, but there are hopeful signs. All in all, Mariah’s proving once again what a tough bird she is.

UPDATE: The DEC has been in contact with Mariah’s local caregivers, and they have decided to move her to Syracuse tomorrow morning for further evaluation and treatment. The DEC works with a private veterinary doctor in Syracuse who has a lot of experience treating falcons, and they feel that this move will allow Mariah to get the best possible care. We’re extremely grateful for their efforts and for those of the local rehab specialist and veterinarian who took time from their holidays to provide the early care and stabilization that Mariah needed. Mike Allen reports that his ultimate goal is to return Mariah to the wild, though this obviously raises some questions which will have to be answered as we get further along in Mariah’s treatment and recovery.

Carol reports that Mariah survived the night. She’s not out of the woods by any means but it’s a hopeful sign. She will be seen by a Veterinarian this morning to check for other injuries and to determine whether she needs surgery. There is some concern about her eyesight but it is too soon to make a determination regarding that yet. Both the rehabbers and Vet have been informed that she may be gravid, or ready to lay eggs. DEC Wildlife Technician Mike Allen has also been in contact with the rehabbers this morning.

In related news, we’ve received more details about the territory battle. It seems that Mariah was attacked by two Peregrines. Carol said that Mariah was brought down to the ground once and went back up. When she fell the second time Carol and Brian moved in to protect her from further attacks which were still being made. It seems likely that their actions saved Mariah’s life, and we’re grateful for their quick thinking and decisiveness.

The rehabbers noted that Mariah had two injuries, one sustained yesterday and another that looked recent. Watchers including Carol, Joyce Miller and Jim P traded notes about their various observations over the holiday weekend, and it seems like Mariah may have last been in command of her territory on Friday. Carol and Joyce reviewed their photos and watch observations from Saturday and both feel confident that the intruding female was at Midtown tower at that time. So Mariah may have sustained her first injury sometime after Noon on Friday, 10 April. As we saw last year and have witnessed at other sites, territory disputes like this can take place over a couple of days. This latest news appears to lend weight to an extended territory battle.

All of this leads to a lot of uncertainty. Since two falcons attacked Mariah on Sunday, could it the new tiercel have worked with the intruder to attack Mariah on Sunday? If the female intruder is the one that has been seen at the Brighton site recently, what happened to Zephyr, who was seen in her company? Unfortunately there are a lot more questions than answers at this point. Doubtless we’ll get some of those answers as time goes on. For now we’re concentrating on Mariah’s treatment and we’re hopeful for her eventual recovery.