1990 - Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration Project

samples from the NCL and Ward young should prove whether Maverick sired bothbroods. One inconsistency is that the late 1989 NCL male was reported byTordoff to have a silver, not gold, band on its right leg, but this may havebeen an error. When Beaner was trapped in 1990, the gold anodizing on his bandwas too faded to be reliably seen under field conditions.Since there were three eggs on April 9, the fourth was probably laid April10 or 11; three hatched by May 14. The young, two females and one male, weremoved to the roof on May 30, where they fledged around June 21. Both femaleyoung got severe Trichomonas infections ("frounce"), which is common in pigeons,were picked up weakened on the street in early July, and died at The RaptorCenter. The young male seemed unaffected and was seen at the nest box on July30.Two adult peregrines were still at the NCL tower in early December. OnNovember 23, Chase, 06T, from Rochester was picked up on the ground with abroken wing one block west of the NCL tower, presumably injured by the residentfalcon(s). For details, see account 23 below.3. Control Data Corporation Headquarters, Bloomington, Hennepin County,Minnesota. The 1989 peregrines, female 08V and male 04T, returned on March 10,1990. They ignored the box installed in 1988, so we gave them a gravel tray ona favorite ledge on April 6. Three eggs were laid by April 20, one hatched byMay 17 (the others had dead embryos). We added two young from Bob Anderson andmoved the brood, all females, to the nest box on June 8. All fledged aroundJune 27. One young flew into the glass-walled building and was killed on June30. Another, 74V, killed a pigeon and was captured for positive identificationand released by Ken Wagner in Andover, MN, 30 miles north of Bloomington, onSeptember 1. A nest box has been placed at a new location on the roof of thenorth wing of the building to eliminate the problem of confusing reflectionsfrom the glass walls which apparently deterred the falcons from using the oldbox in 1990.4. NSP King Power Plant, Bayport, Minnesota. An adult male arrived atthe nest box on the smokestack on March 12. He was joined by an immature femaleon March 20; they turned out to be half-siblings, 31V, Mae, female produced byMF1 and Will in Minneapolis in 1989 and 13T, male, produced by MF1 and Alfie inMinneapolis in 1988. By April 23 they had three eggs; none had hatched by May30, when the female was seen on a TV monitor to eat one egg. Two male youngfrom Bob Anderson placed in the box were adopted immediately. They fledgedaround June 28. The female, 31V, seemed casual about incubation, spending longperiods away from the nest and standing over the eggs instead of incubating themduring the period when they should have been hatching, behavior probablyreflecting her immaturity. One adult was seen at the nest box on September 29.A peregrine thought to be a male was seen by Paul Simonet near the NSP plant onJanuary 8, 1991.5. Montgomery Ward, St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota. This new pairwas reported by Tom Shearen, who works in the building, on May 3. The male is05T, Maverick, released at Rochester, Minnesota, in 1988; the female is 11V,Comet, released at Virginia, Minnesota, in 1988. They laid three eggs on tarroofing material on the upper ledge of the 250 foot tower which we transferredto a gravel tray. One hatched June 9 after at least 36 days of incubation.This male chick and one additional male from Bob Anderson were put in the trayin front of a new nest box on the east side of the tower. Both fledged aroundJuly 20; one fell down a large nearby smokestack but was rescued and releasedunharmed, the other was killed in a collision with the MW building on August 14or 15. For possible earlier history of Maverick, see pair 2, NCL, St. Paul,above.