{"id":17326,"date":"2013-08-01T04:00:37","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T10:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=17326"},"modified":"2013-08-01T15:49:42","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T21:49:42","slug":"banded-prairie-falcon-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/08\/01\/banded-prairie-falcon-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Banded Prairie Falcon – A Fascinating Update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days ago I posted<\/em> about a very tame juvenile male Prairie Falcon<\/em> <\/a>I photographed last week in the Centennial Valley of Montana.\u00a0 The bird had two bands and I was extremely curious about where, when and why the falcon was banded and by whom so I asked for any insight my readers might have about the bands.\u00a0 Several of you jumped in with advice and suggestions, for which I’m much appreciative.<\/p>\n

But it was the superb sleuthing of my friend\u00a0Mike Shaw that paid huge dividends.\u00a0 Mike did some research and learned that the colored band on the falcon (left foot) was issued to Doug Bell, Wildlife Program Manager for East Bay Regional Park District out of Oakland, California.\u00a0 On Tuesday, figuring that\u00a0Doug might be interested in knowing that his California bird was now in the wilds of\u00a0Montana,\u00a0I emailed\u00a0him with a\u00a0link to that blog post and an offer to supply any more information about my encounter with that bird that he’d be interested in.\u00a0 I also asked\u00a0him if he might tell me a little about his experience with the falcon.<\/p>\n

Yesterday Doug responded generously with information and photos.\u00a0 Since many of my readers expressed an interest in knowing about the history of this young bird I decided to update you with a new post rather than add an addendum to the previous post that many might not see.\u00a0 Besides, there’s a lot of new “stuff” here.<\/p>\n

\"prairie<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used\u00a0by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Doug and his team banded “my” Prairie Falcon (along with two other male siblings)\u00a0when it was a 24 day old nestling on May 31, 2013 in the Diablo Range about 30 miles east of San Francisco.\u00a0 These are those three youngsters on the day of banding.\u00a0 Doug took the photo while hanging from a rope.\u00a0 He noted that these chicks were originally in a stick nest that collapsed sometime in the week\u00a0before banding (you can see remnants of the nest and how steeply the cliff drops off in front of the narrow ledge).\u00a0 Doug expected to find that stick nest when he reached the chicks but instead they were on this narrow, rock shelf.\u00a0 After surviving this experience and a trip to Montana as such a young bird Doug referred to my bird as a “true survivor”.<\/p>\n

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\"_Adult\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used\u00a0by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Doug took this photo of one of the adult birds while hanging from the rope.<\/p>\n

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\"Team_\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used\u00a0by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0Meet the banding team, minus Doug – (L-R) Joe DiDonato, Harvey Wilson and Erika Walther.<\/p>\n

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\"Erika_<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used\u00a0by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s Erika with one of the three\u00a0chicks.\u00a0 There’s a 50\/50 chance that this youngster is my bird since only two of the chicks were banded silver on the right foot and green on the left (you can see the silver band on the right foot of this bird.<\/p>\n

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\"doug<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Image property of East Bay Regional Park District – used\u00a0by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

And this is Doug at a different nest site in 2011.<\/p>\n

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I enthusiastically\u00a0endorse the work that Doug and his team are doing in support of Prairie Falcons.\u00a0 I’ll let him describe it in his own words:<\/p>\n

“I have been studying the population genetics and biology of prairie falcons in California since 2002.\u00a0 I am especially interested in population sub-differentiation and how they use the landscape in regards to land management and human development. \u00a0I have had two graduate students complete Master\u2019s studies on prairie falcons and am in the process of writing those up for publication.\u00a0 \u00a0The Park District and others have used the information from our studies to help identify and purchase some of the last best grasslands in the east SF Bay Area for open space. \u00a0\u00a0We are also concerned about the ongoing impacts of the Altamont Pass wind turbines on falcons and other raptors, especially golden eagles<\/em>“.<\/p>\n

Here’s a couple of other interesting tidbits:<\/p>\n