ODNR bands peregrine falcons

Published 12:00 am Saturday, June 3, 2006

RUSSELL, Ky. — Ten-year-old Kate Jackson and her sister, Leela, waited in the heat and humidity Wednesday morning for a chance to meet and greet their neighbors.

“I watched them last year,” Kate said. “I think they’re cool and the babies are cute.”

“They” are the peregrine falcons that nest each year under the beams of the Ironton-Russell Bridge. Biologists with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife collected three baby birds from the nest of the falcons and banded them, enabling wildlife officials to better track their whereabouts in the future.

Email newsletter signup

A crowd of several dozen people waited at Russell’s park on Riverside Drive and watched as wildlife area supervisor Chris Smith scaled the side of the bridge and retrieved three young male hatchlings. Although information from the ODNR falcon webpage mentioned four eggs in the nest, only three babies were located during the banding event.

If the babies weren’t too keen on the coming-out party, Mom and Dad were perhaps even less so: they circled the bridge during the event, hovering occasionally on upper beams to sqwack at the delegation of media and wildlife officials.

“We’re keeping an eye on them,” peregrine falcon project coordinator Dave Scott motioned skyward.

Once the babies were placed in plastic tubs, they were carried down to the park so the crowd could have a look. The birds were then put back in the nest, sporting green, purple and black bands that tell where they were born and with individual identifying numbers.

“This is about what they we expected,” Smith said. “They’re three weeks old now. We’ve been watching the nest since the pair came back to nest. We appreciate the turnout.”

Are these the same falcons that have nested at the bridge before? Wildlife officials said they can’t be certain. They have not had a look at the bands on the female bird to determine if she is Lucy, who has laid eggs there in the past.

The male bird who had taken up residence with Lucy previously is not banded at all.