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  • John Cross

    Banded

June 16, 2008

Peregrine falcons banded

Birds bothered in North Star Bridge nests

John Cross

Little wonder that mom and pop peregrine were upset.

The falcons obviously value their privacy or they wouldn’t have built their nest on a bridge pillar tucked beneath the North Star Bridge in the first place.

So when unexpected — and certainly uninvited guests dropped in Monday morning to see the family — one couldn’t really blame them for their displeasure.

The adult falcons swooped and chattered as a member of the Peregrine Project rode a Minnesota Department of Transportation bridge inspection boom to their otherwise inaccessible nest to retrieve four young peregrine chicks for banding.

Once retrieved and safely tucked into a fabric case, the four loudly complaining chicks — two males and two females estimated to be about 24 days old — were brought topside where Project members took blood samples, placed bands on their legs and gave them names before returning them to the nest.

The males were named Gertie and Andy; the females were named Ruth and Izzy.

Monday’s was the second peregrine banding operation at the bridge site in as many years. Last spring three chicks were banded. Those three birds successfully fledged and migrated to points thus far undetermined.

Betsy, the tagged female, was the same bird that successfully hatched that brood. This spring she returned accompanied by a different male to discover that MnDOT had provided a nesting box as a more secure nesting site.

Peregrines, viewed by many as the high-performance members of the raptor family, are known for their high speed dives as they snatch other birds from the sky.

As upset as mom and pop peregrine seemed to be at the uninvited guests, they weren’t angry enough to pass on the chance to do a little grocery shopping when the opportunity presented itself.

A flock of pigeons made the mistake of flying by the pair as they circled. The male peregrine struck first, delivering a glancing blow on one of the birds. The female dived and quickly delivered the final blow, snatching the hapless bird from mid-air.

Mom then disappeared beneath the bridge, presumably to cache her prey until the uninvited guests left, things returned to normal, and the family could enjoy a quiet meal together.

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