The Canadian Peregrine Foundation

Project Track-'em: Lightning

Lightning, the Peregrine Falcon, comes back triumphant in Toronto

Translated by Pedro Genaro Rodríguez
from an article in Ultima Hora
(June 5, 2002)


Awesome flight: with almost mathematical precision, he's back at the place he departed from 8 months ago.

After some weeks out of reach from the satellite due to the weakness of his transmitter's signal, Lightning, the peregrine falcon that marveled Dominicans for several months, has reappeared giving us a nice surprise: he's back in Toronto, Canada, just ten kilometres south of Richmond Hill, the place where he was freed last year.

Lightning's transmitter sent a signal on May 24 after being silent for several weeks. It was good enough to locate him at York Mills, Toronto, in the Bayview area. A couple of days before, a reliable observer said he saw a peregrine wearing an antenna feeding on a gull at the airport of Toronto Island.

Last 30th of May, to clear any doubts about his comeback, a gentleman named James Ingham took pictures of Lightning while being at the 18th floor of the North American Building.

The scientists that study this species are still amazed about the journey this bird started at such a young age, and getting back with such correctness. It was quite a feat getting out of Canada, arriving in Dominican Republic and getting back to his native land, all this after "fixing" the route when a deviation took the bird to the Yucatan Peninsula, in Mexico.

According to the information of Marcel Gahbauer, responsible of monitoring the satellite tracking at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation, now the biggest challenge is to recapture Lightning to remove its backpack and refurbish it at a minimal cost, replacing also the battery so that the foundation can keep track of this wonderful bird.

The Peregrine Foundation wishes to ask of the hispanic community that reads this digital version of Ultima Hora to notify any information about this bird at marcel@peregrine-foundation.ca

The story of Lightning's journey can be seen at http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/programs/trackem/tracklight.html

Return to Lightning's page

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