Cleveland's Loss Hits Close to Home

Got word today that Buckeye (*R/K), the adult male from the Terminal Tower nest in Cleveland died on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2009. He was found on the sidewalk in Cleveland with injuries consistent with a building/window collision.

This makes news in Columbus because he fledged from "our" nest in 1996--one of 4 young produced that year (all males!). 1996 was notable in my mind for two reasons: it was the first year I was in charge of monitoring the nest in Columbus and it was also the first year of the Columbus FalconCam! The adult pair was Aurora and Bandit. About a week after fledging Buckeye was found grounded. He was stablized then shipped to the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. He had a small fracture, however, it had healed by the time the falcon reached Minnesota and he was able to be returned to Columbus for release a week later. At the time, due to the peregrines being classified as an endangered species, Northwest Airlines shipped them for free!


Over the years I have accumulated a lot of falcon memories from working with the species in Columbus. With so many birds coming through the program there are some I don't remember at all. But one thing I will always remember is releasing Buckeye on July 22, 1996, after he was shipped back. I was with Sara Jean Peters a great mentor to me who is now retired from the Division of Wildlife. We were on the 41st floor of the Rhodes Tower on the east side of the building (where the hack box was for those of you who have followed our falcon program from the beginning). I set him down in a corner of the balcony area and backed away. He composed himself then jumped up on the ledge and looked at us long enough for Sara to snap a photo. (I know I still have that photo somewhere, albeit a 35mm slide). It was very exciting 2 years later when he showed up at Case Western Reserve, then assumed the Terminal Tower territory in 2000. He's had his own share of experiences over the years producing 34 young in 9 years. This photo from Scott Wright:

Scout in Scrape

Not a whole lot to report over the past couple of months. Scout has been on and around the nest ledge fairly frequently and as far as we are aware, no new mate yet. This morning Scout visited the nestbox for a few minutes. When you look at the gravel there is definitely a large scrape (depression) she has been working on.

We have met with our web consultants to discuss camera options for next season. If all goes well we will have a new system in place by the end of the year to allow plenty of time to troubleshoot before the nesting season begins in 2010. At least that is the plan at this point. We'll hope things continue on schedule. Further updates as information becomes available!

"First Grade News!" & New Falcon Update

As summer winds down we're seeing more of Scout. Before she had been spending most of her time away from the nest ledge (and view of the cameras), however, in the past two weeks she has been seen more days than not. On 9/17 she was in the nestbox. It appears there is the beginnings of a new scrape in the fresh gravel. This is a factor of the amount of daylight during this fall season and not because a possible new male is in the area.

Speaking of such...there has been no sign of that second falcon that was seen last week so it is possible he was "just passing through" and has a territory of his own established somewhere else. With as many peregrines that are on the move right now for fall migration, it's possible we could be in store for a number of these teases! Regardless, the activity last week has surely renewed interest in watching! As always, we appreciate all of the extra eyes out there on the lookout for leg band information when the opportunity presents itself.
Something else I've had on my list to share: The 1st graders at Benjamin Harrison Elementary School in Marion, OH, were very busy this past spring. At the same time they were enjoying watching Scout and Orville at their nest in downtown Columbus via the Falconcam, their teacher, Mrs. Shade, told them about a nest of robins in a hanging basket at her house. The kids kept track of the progress of the robin nest via photos from their teacher. They had a fun learning experience as they compared life history facts of peregrine falcons and the American robin. They made charts of what they learned and posted them where the other students in the school could see. Thanks to Mrs. Shade and the 1st graders for recording the two events to help the entire school learn more about wildlife! Here are photos of the posters they made:

New bird sighted!!!

No kidding, the very moment I was working on a blog entry that stated no new male in town that we know of...I heard Scout vocalizing on the live streaming. I called up the window which I had minimized on my desktop and watched as Scout sat on the ledge calling. Something in her tone told me to watch, then low and behold, I saw a shadow go by! Another bird was flying by! So, I quick set up the video and saved this clip of another pass. The way she was vocalizing this was definitely interaction between a male and female. I saw the "new bird" pass by at least three times.

Sorry there isn't any audio on the video...I'll have to check my settings for next time. But, this is excellent news and we'll have to watch to see what happens next and hope he sticks around. Right after this clip, Scout flew off the ledge. Wouldn't it be great to be downtown right now with a much broader view!!!

Nest Box Maintenance

Today was the annual cleaning day for the nest box which includes removing the pea gravel and replacing with new, plus a fresh coat of paint on the inside of the box. Maintenance was pretty uneventful except that it was extremely hot out on the ledge on a typical steamy, sunny August morning in Ohio. Lucky for me, I had Jesse, our summer intern to do the bulk of the dirty work - thanks, Jesse!!! ;-)

As usual, the nest box was a total mess of dusty, dried and smelly falcon feces and bits and pieces/bones and feathers of many of the birds that were fed to a growing family of peregrines. Cleaning out the nest box might not sound like that big of a job, but Jesse can now attest to the stench, filth, dirt and dust that is involved. A job not recommended to be done without protective coveralls and dust mask. Jesse has new found respect for the species as he commented, "Nothing makes you feel closer to an animal than when you have to clean up after it!"

Viewers may notice the new pea gravel is a somewhat darker in appearance than what we had last season. It's simply a different brand than we have used in the past. We also cleaned the lens of the nestbox camera.

Towards the end of the duty, Scout made an appearance and swooped at Jesse several times. He had his back turned as he was focusing on the job at hand, so I made sure she didn't come closer than a foot or so from striking him. Overall, it is not the time of year for her to be extremely territorial but she still gave a good showing before retiring to a nearby ledge to let us finish. I wasn't able to get any photos but I will report that she was looking a bit scruffy due to her molt.

So far no new male in the territory yet but as I've said already, it is only a matter of time. Folks have been wondering what, if anything, Scout will have to "do" to attract a mate. She'll actually not have to do anything: basically, sooner or later a male will cruise into town via migration/normal wanderings that would be expected from an unmated falcon without a territory. This can happen at any time of the year but birds will be on the move more in fall and winter just because of the nature of migration.

The city as a falcon territory will be attractive to him (cliff fronts, nest box, food source). In the absence of Orville, the newbie won’t be chased out of town and will be free to look around. In the course of checking things out he’ll also find that there’s a female on site as well. Then, when the time is right (courtship season--January/February--as determined by the length of day that gets the hormones flowing) he’ll step up and start courting and a bond will form. If there would happen to be more than one male they would compete with each other and Scout would accept the victor just because the loser would be run out by the dominant male. Pretty simple and basic!

Sightings of Scout have been few and far between this time of year, but that is normal--male or no male. The young have moved on and now that it is the "off season" (not nesting season) there is little for her to do other than eat, sleep and molt her feathers. She's obviously still in the territory and still protective of the nest site as we experienced today, but for the most part she's staying out of site of the cameras. Again, normal behavior for this time of year.

Thanks for reading the Columbus Peregrine Falcon Blog!

Reports are coming in less frequently, but by all accounts it appears all of the female fledglings are doing great. Despite some losses we can chalk up another successful peregrine nesting season in Columbus. So far no sign of a new male but I am confident it is only a matter of time. The rest of the summer is expected to be uneventful. We do have camera and nestbox maintenance on the agenda and I will post updates on those issues as I have details.

As we are at the end of the nesting season for this year I thought I'd take a moment and review some interesting blog stats. I ran a summary for the period of January 1, 2009 through July 20, 2009. During that time the Columbus Falcon blog received a total of 157,549 visits from 64 countries around the world!!! Those hits came from 34,841 different visitors! Average time on the site was 41 seconds with most of the traffic (96.52%) being directed from the ODNR, Division of Wildlife website. The date with the highest number of visits (3,688) was April 29 (the date the 3rd and 4th egg hatched). The date with the lowest number of visits (28) was January 4. Even though there has not been any activity to report on, yesterday (July 20) there were still an amazing 661 hits to the blog.

Of the total number of visits, 228 came from 7 cities in Australia. Here's a picture of one of those dedicated viewers: "Saffi" watches along with Margaret in Sydney!



I routinely get emails expressing appreciation that the blog is an informative and educational tool to go along with the falconcams. The "fan mail" is very nice but in addition, the numbers recorded on the blog report indicate a tremendous following. So, I'll take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to everyone out there for your interest and support of the ODNR, Division of Wildlife's Columbus Peregrine Falcon Project!

Enjoy the rest of the summer. Additional updates over the summer/fall as information becomes available.

Sad news - remembering Orville

With all of the concern over the fledglings learning to fly successfully and avoiding windows and other obstacles, it is easy to forget that these same obstacles still present a danger to the adult falcons downtown. I'm sorry to report that Orville, our adult male, was found dead over the weekend.

A Columbus police officer found him in the street near W. Town & S. Gift St. Saturday morning, July 4. I have examined the carcass and noted a broken beak and blood in the cere, thus he likely collided with something and the cause of death would be head trauma. There aren't any tall buildings in that area of Columbus so he may have been struck by a car as he was cruising across the roadway. The death was certainly not related to Red, White and Boom held the previous evening.

Looking back on Orville's history - he fledged from the Dayton nest in 2003 and showed up in Columbus in 2004, replacing our then long-time nesting male, Bandit. He paired with our female at the time--Victory--but no eggs were produced. Victory and Orville produced 2 young in 2005, and 4 young in 2006. In 2007, Victory was replaced by Scout but eggs laid that season were infertile. Scout and Orville fledged four young in each 2008 and 2009 bringing Orville's total young raised during his lifetime to 14. Some photos from over the years:

Orville on banding day in Dayton, 2003:

Orville as a fledgling in 2003:

Orville in 2005:


Now that Orville is gone, it opens the territory for a new male. While you may have heard that falcons "mate for life" this means something very different to people than it does to peregrines. Basically, peregrines (as well as other birds of prey and even Canada geese) keep the same mate for as long as the two are alive. However, when/if something happens to one of the pair, the remaining bird will readily accept a new mate. In the case of peregrines, sometimes a new mate is had in a matter of hours! There's no room for being picky or mournful when your "job" is to reproduce and carry on the species!

So the next order of business is to watch and wait for a new male to take over the Columbus territory. There are so many unmated falcons out there ("floaters") it could happen at any time. We may see a new male this week or it may be next March. We'll be sure to watch the cams for photo evidence of a new male and document any leg bands.

One final note on the fledglings - the three females seem to be doing great as evidenced by their returns to the nest ledge. "Aerial" (65/H) even made an appearance on Friday, so all 3 were accounted for last week. They should be pretty much able to hunt on their own by now so Orville's absence at this stage in the nesting cycle won't have any negative impacts on their survival. They can be expected to remain in the downtown area for the next several weeks but as they become completely independent, will eventually roam further and further from downtown proper. At some point later this summer they will strike out to parts unknown to hopefully survive and establish a territory of their own elsewhere.