SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Newest Fargo falcon banded

Only one of the four eggs laid this year hatched. That hatching occurred on May 19, the baby appears to be thriving. There are many possible explanations for the low hatch rate, but hard freezes early in the egg laying process are a good guess.

The adult female is Miracle. This is her fifth consecutive nesting in Fargo. We have a new male this year, but due to a badly faded band his identity has not been established. Based on a partial reading, the potential matches include two males who were raised in Fargo in 2008.

High above Fargo on the roof of Bank of the West today, wildlife experts collected the one baby Peregrine Falcon that hatched weeks ago. Master Bander Tim Driscoll banded the baby falcon and collected blood for research.

The falcons have nested at the Bank of the West location since 2001 and the female, Miracle, continues
to use the box. Before that, Dakota Ace was there. With the HD-Falcon Cam this year, interest in the Peregrines was widespread.

 “The banding is important primarily so we can track the birds, this species is probably the most intensely monitored of anything in the world.”

The falcons from Fargo travel to Central and South America for the winter.
Come by and see  http://dk.audubon.org/fargo-peregrine-falcon-project-falconcam