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Downtown Peregrine
We got a call on a Peregrine down on the ground behind a business on Huron Street. Keep in mind that 90% of the calls we get on birds downtown are thought by the public to be Peregrines. I have picked up Pigeons that were supposedly Peregrines. Once I picked up a Flicker that was a Peregrine. Soooo. when I asked Angie Knannlein to pick it up…I told her to expect it to be anything. I was very surprised when she called to say it was actually a Falcon.
The gentleman who called us said the bird was down on the ground for a couple days and that it wasn’t using one wing. But upon examination…we couldn’t find any problems. We even took it to the vet for an x-ray… no problems. So the young lady stayed with us a week (mainly due to bad weather) and was ready to be reunited with her family. There had been four fledglings from the nest – all females. Sadly one died when she hit a window at The Seagate Center and another was found dead between a couple of air conditioning units. This made it all the more important for us to get this one back safely.
Nancy Nicholson and I took our patient back to the top of the Commodore Perry Building where their nest site is located. We hadn’t taken more than ten steps out onto the roof when I felt a whoosh of air and heard the scream of the adult female. As I opened the kennel and the fledgling stepped out…both adults were dive bombing us! The youngster waited about 30 seconds and then took off and disappeared off the side of the roof. Meanwhile the adult female stood on the edge of the roof keeping an eye on us.
It was the second time I had had the privilege of returning a fledgling to that roof top… and it was as exciting this time as it was 15 years ago! The couple that lives in the penthouse was kind enough to let us know that they saw both remaining fledges about a week later. We so rarely know if the animals we release ever make it.