Nebraskaland Magazine
I received an email yesterday informing me that an adult Peregrine Falcon was sighted at the Anadarko Petroleum Corporation north of Houston in The Woodlands, Texas. Fortunately the observer, Linda Kuhn, was not only able to see that the bird was banded, but also captured photographs of the bird, including a couple of shots which show the color band. You can see the band in the photo, below. So who is this falcon? Where did it come from? When and where was it banded?
Obviously, I would not be writing this post if there was not some news associated with this bird and sighting. This individual Peregrine Falcon hatched in 2012 at the Nebraska Capitol building. We banded the bird, along with his brother, on 25 May 2012 (a blog post of that glorious event can be found HERE). This bird was named “Lewis” as a result of that year’s “name-the-chicks” contest.
Lewis is the fourth Peregrine Falcon hatched at the Capitol to be detected as an adult. The others include the two that have paired and taken up residence in Topeka, Kansas. Then, there is Mintaka, who took over as the male at the Woodmen Building in Omaha in 2013. The map, below, shows where these Capitol offspring have been detected as adults.
A total of 22 Peregrine Falcons have fledged at the Capitol (a full overview is provided HERE). In addition to the four mentioned in this post that have made it to adulthood, two were recovered dead. We have no information for the remaining 16, which is not surprising because we expect a low recovery/detection rate for birds banded as eyases. In fact, receiving information for the four adults is very satisfying.
Hopefully there are more email surprises in the offing!
Thanks to Linda Kuhn of Anadarko Petroleum Coroporation and Jacquelyn Fallon of the Midwest Peregrine Society for their assistance in bringing this report to my attention!
