Big Peregrine news gets bigger!

First, a little bit of housekeeping.  Our announcement regarding the winner of our “name-the-chick” contest may not occur today as previously scheduled.  It will happen soon, so stay tuned. Now….back to regular programming.   

Last week, I blogged about the new Peregrine Falcon nest site at Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) power station in north Omaha (be sure to check out OPPD’s falcon webpage HERE).  There was also a nice story in the Omaha World-Herald.  In the post, I stated one of the adults was banded but a photo of sufficient quality allowing the alphanumeric band to be read had not been acquired.  Thus, the identity of the bird was unknown.  Laura King-Homan of OPPD sent me a photo this morning taken by Andrew Roger which clearly shows the band.  The band is black or over red, with the alphanumeric combination “90” over “B”.  I did not have to search long and far to figure out the identity of the banded Peregrine Falcon.  In fact, I have been in the bird’s company on a previous occasion.

The OPPD bird is “Clark” a male hatched and raised at the Nebraska Capitol in 2012.  You may remember this post about Clark’s sibling, Lewis, being observed at the Woodlands, Texas, during the winter of 2014.  Read more about Clark and his offspring, HERE, on OPPD’s website.

Clark is now the fifth Peregrine Falcon to be raised at the Capitol and re-sighted as an adult.   A full rundown of the Capitol’s thriving grown-ups is as follows:

• Boreas – hatched in 2007 and is currently the resident male at the Westar Energy facility in Topeka, Kansas.
• Nemaha – hatched in 2009 and is currently the mate of Boreas.
• Mintaka – hatched in 2010 and is currently the resident male at the Woodmen in Omaha.
• Lewis – hatched in 2012 and sighted at the Woodlands, Texas in early 2014.
• Clark – hatched in 2012 and is the resident male at Nebraska’s new nest site at OPPD’s north Omaha power station.

The pair at the Capitol must have good genes or is doing something right when raising youngsters, because this is a pretty good showing for one pair.  Will there be any more?  Stayed tuned.

Thanks again to Laura King-Homan and Andrew Roger for sharing and allowing use of their photos and to OPPD for their support of Peregrine Falcons.