June 24, 2011 - What a Difference A Week Makes!

Our brood is growing like crazy since their arrivals last week. The fluffy down that covered their little bodies now covers the hack floor or is blowing in the wind, blending in with the plentiful cottonwood seedlings filling the air this time of year.  They are actively flapping and eating and flying perch to perch in the safety of their roomy enclosure. 

Today is another big day with a planned release of five tiercels, or male peregrines. Technically, only the female peregrine is called a falcon.  In raptors, a biological condition called reverse sexual dimorphism means the tiercel is about 1/3 the size of the female falcon. The male develops and flies faster, yet the female can capture larger prey for feeding the young, and keeping her clutch or group of eggs incubated.

Thus concludes our Friday vocabulary lesson.  Let’s get back to our birds. The five males will be sporting yellow wing paint for identification. These boys were named Vito, Delta, Tomahawk, Lucky Linde, and Elsu.  We purposefully have a higher number of males than females in our project.  It is believed that the males return closer to the site from where they took their first flights than the females do.  Hence, these boys are important in our reintroduction effort to help reestablish breeding pairs that will return and nest in or close to Rapid City.

The release is always a challenge in terms of tracking where each bird heads when they fly from the rooftop. This is the time for any folks wanting to volunteer with binoculars and help to track the birds from the ground to call Ashley at (605) 209 4260. These birds are beautiful fliers, but they are clumsy and inexperienced at landing. They can end up in some precarious places until they learn the intricacies of aerodynamics. There are man-made dangers like electrical lines and guy wires that can ground these young birds. Spotters help our trained staff respond quickly if one of these youngsters gets into trouble.

An update on our previous releases:   Kanoa and Flash have both successfully flown and returned to the Assurant rooftop to feed and perch on the ledge of the building. Calamity Jane, a more mature female falcon, was  dive-bombing the staff yesterday as they cleaned the release sight water baths. She clearly is defending her turf and knows that Rapid City is her home!  As previously reported, the other mature female, Weaver, was observed chasing pigeons and is believed to be hunting on her own and expanding her home range. The 3 remaining females named Roxanne, Hope, and Sky, are slower to develop and will be released next week sometime. They remain visible on the webcam in their release box. “Penny” the little falcon who has been under staff care due to delayed development is slowly improving and will likely make a trip to the vet for an x-ray to rule out any unforeseen complications. We remain optimistic about her future.

We are fortunate to have exceptionally dedicated interns on our project.  Ashley Hrabe, a junior at South Dakota State University is from Rapid City and majoring in wildlife and fisheries sciences. She is proving to be invaluable to the staff as she hones her observational skills and uses her knowledge of the area to help us track our young fliers. She is learning the facets of raptor reintroduction efforts and is a delight to work with! Blake Schioberg, a senior at the University of Idaho majoring in wildlife biology is a returning veteran, having spent 2 years with osprey reintroduction in Yankton in 2009 and 2010. Blake is assuming greater responsibility this year with peregrines and is being groomed to actually assume leadership of the nonprofit, Birds of Prey Northwest in Idaho.

Left to right: Ashley Hrabe and Blake Schioberg

 We hope the interns return next year as we repeat our reintroduction efforts with peregrines in South Dakota.

The webcam is proving popular with over 1000 hits daily. Special thanks to Craig Burnett from Kansas City and his special talents that enabled us to make the technological leap!