!!! New resident adult male identified at the Niagara Falls nest site!! It’s Duncan from Hamilton! And as earlier suspected, there is in fact 3 fledglings!!
July 04, 2015 - Niagara Falls
CPF Postmaster Reports:
July 4th - 2015
Some very interesting news indeed from Connie in N.Y. as she has reported after seeing recent photographs of the resident adult male at the Niagara Falls nest site, that there has in fact been a change-over, as Onyx is no longer the resident adult male at the Niagara Falls nest site.
After checking the CPF banding database, the Black band number 32 over V that was photographed on the resident male in Niagara Falls turns out to be a 2008 Sheraton Hamilton produced bird that was named Duncan - (after one of the banders that was involved years ago banding some of the Hamilton peregrines).
We had several earlier reports of Duncan actually having been observed nesting in New York state in 2010, but these records seem to be incomplete on our updated banding data base. We will be checking the old data files to see if we still have the older historical notes that were attached to the this record and report our findings.
While we can’t positively confirm that the resident adult female is still Diamond, she is till believed to be the resident adult female at this nest site.
As far as banding, to answer many of your recent questions, sadly, this will not be possible.
Despite the fact that we have certified highly trained high-altitude climbers that actually are the folks that ascend down to (or repel up to) the many nest sites that are banded each year to extract the young peregrines, (the same certified climbers that actually train many of the Canadian law enforcement personnel, the Emergency Task Force (ETF), and many of the Fire department staff for their high-altitude rescue training, people that do this for a living, (not for a publicity stunt), the Canadian Niagara Parks Commission will no longer allow access for us to band the hatchlings, so unfortunately there will be no way to ever identify or follow any of the surviving fledglings.
Banding as you know, helps all of our provincial, federal and state wildlife authorities monitor and manage the species throughout its recovery, as it is one of the most effective ways to understand and monitor the individual birds movements, nesting, and of course the species mortality (among many other important data that comes out of monitoring the species).
I guess there is simply no money in it for them??? Perhaps we should have been asking Nik Wallenda all this time for a publicity stunt type peregrine banding event?? Hmmmm, sell tickets and attract sponsorship?
In any case, stay tuned for a more detailed update to follow………..