Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Peregrine Falcon Nest


Dear Lilliputian , 

This letter is going to be about a very special bird .  It is a Peregrine Falcon . I think she is called   S71 , it is the number on her ankle band . If a great bird like this has an ankle band it means she was probably banded by a Massachusetts Wildlife Official when she was only a month old . The photo below is of a month old Peregrine who has just had a band put on its leg .


The reason they are banded is because the state of Massachusetts wants to keep track of these bird because they are rather precious . The Peregrine Falcons until not so long ago had disappeared from Massachusetts . Which means that there were no Peregrines living in our state at all . They have been on the Endangered List for over 40 years which means they may never live in Massachusetts
again . . . But , good news , changes were made ,  people thought they are too special to lose forever and now after many , many years of  putting up nest boxes and doing other things to help the Peregrines to come back here to live with us in Massachusetts we have a healthy bunch of Peregrines once again living in Massachusetts . Soon they will be taken off the Endangered List .  I am thankful for people like those at the University of Massachusetts who built the nest box above for the Falcons to nest in . The Mother Peregrine in the photo above is using this nest box right now and she plans to raise her young Peregrines there .
Right now there is a live camera that shows the mother and father Peregrine Falcon taking care of the four eggs laid just a few weeks ago on top of the Library at the University of Massachusetts . If you are interested in seeing them and even seeing the Peregrine's eggs hatch in about a week . . . here is the live camera address . Just click on it . I check the camera daily to see how they are doing .

http://www.library.umass.edu/falcons

Now . . . for a bit of news that may surprise you . The building that the Peregrine's nest is on is at the University of Massachusetts and quite few of our relatives have gone to this school . I know of a grandmother who is also an aunt that went to this university .  Two cousins ( one of those cousins is an aunt and one of those cousins is a father ) and my daughter also went to this very same
university . . . and if fact my daughter works in the building that the Peregrines live on top of .  Can you guess who they are ? I will give you a hint . . . they are part of your family .
If you can't guess who they all are you can email me and I will tell you .

 Underneath the mother Peregrine are 4 large eggs . Don't you think that the university was very nice to built a nest box for these birds ?

Here is a photo of the building that the Falcon lives on top of .


The eggs are due to start hatching in about a week . I will let you know so you can check out what newly hatched Peregrine Falcons look like .

There is a picture book that will tell you more about Peregrine Falcons and it is called The Peregrine Falcon - Endangered No More by Mac Priebe . It talks about how they became nearly extinct in North America and how we were able to save them from disappearing forever .

Until next time ,
Wildbee

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