Names are Chosen -- Update on Banding

The votes are in (over 5,000 of them!) and this year's Columbus falcon chicks will be named:

"Spirit" and "Swoop"

Thanks again to the students of Benjamin Harrison Elementary School in Marion for participating in the contest and thanks to everyone for voting.

The chicks are nearing their 3rd week birthday and continue to grow! Today I was able to watch as the chick that had its foot stuck in a crack last week walked around and repeatedly grasped at one of the unhatched eggs. I also saw it hold the remains of a wing from a recent meal. All good signs that there was no damage to the leg or foot. Interesting to see also that the chick was holding its own food and picking at it. They grow and develop so quickly. Hard to imagine that in only a few weeks from now they will be fully flighted and catching prey on their own. Here is the ~3 week old photo:

Banding is set for tomorrow at 10 a.m. and will be shown on the nestbox live streaming feed. The normal 8 minute timeout of the live streaming will be disabled to allow viewers to watch the banding without having to reload the page. The banding is scheduled to begin at about 10 a.m. If you happen to be watching earlier do not be alarmed if you see Division of Wildlife personnel out on the ledge. Sometimes we need to access the ledge ahead of time to prepare for the banding. Further, with last minute testing there may be times when the video feed is temporarily unavailable. We are sorry for this inconvenience but it is necessary to have things ready to go for the "main event."

If you missed it, please check out my post from yesterday regarding the live streaming issue.