Bird Cam

The 2009 Peregrine falcon season is complete. Thank you for your interest in the falcons— please visit www.dairynet.com early next spring when we expect the falcons to return. Typically, the Peregrine falcons migrate back to the Genoa and Alma areas in late February to begin the nesting season, and the Dairyland Bird Cam is reactivated at that time. See you then!

2009 Peregrine falcon season summary:

This is the 14th season of Dairyland’s falcon stewardship program which has produced 70 young Peregrine falcons at our Alma and Genoa sites, with an additional four at a wild cliff site across from the Alma power plant. Thank you for following the falcons’ progress this season via the Dairyland Bird Cam.

2009 was a unique year for the Dairyland Power Restoration Program. A territorial dispute at the Genoa site resulted in the abandonment or death of the longtime female Peregrine, Scooter, and the death of the four chicks that had hatched at the Genoa nesting box. A new female seemed to be establishing herself with the existing male at the Genoa Site. She is a 2007 fledge from the American Republic Insurance Building in Des Moines, Iowa. Dairyland named her Jezebel. It was too late at that point in the nesting season for the male and Jezebel to produce chicks; it will be interesting to see if the pair returns in 2010.

The news was much happier out of Alma. The Alma falcons chose a natural cliff dwelling on 12 Mile Bluff across from Dairyland’s Alma Site this year, versus nesting in the power plant box. This is the second year falcons have chosen their natural habitat over the man-made nesting box; they first nested on the bluff in 2007. Dairyland trained the Alma Bird Cam to focus on the cliff nesting area instead of the nesting box.

Four Peregrine falcon chicks, two males and two females, were banded by Bob Anderson of the Raptor Resource Project on June 9 in Alma. As yet, the adult falcon pair in the Alma area has not been able to be identified; however, we do know they are both banded birds. Again, it will be interesting to see if they return in the spring.