![]() ![]() The pair can’t sit on their chicks any longer, to keep them warm, as they’ve grown so large. ![]() Annie chose the Campanile as her territory in late 2016 along with her first mate, Grinnell, who died a year ago.Īnnie is now venturing away from the nest a bit more to help Lou with the hunting, since the chicks are bigger and hungrier, said Peterson. “She recognizes what’s about to happen we’re getting familiar to her” after all these years. “She was a little fiercer today than usual,” said Malec, after the team had exited the tower. Meanwhile, Annie, soaring in the skies nearby, made dozens of passes at top speed over the humans near her nest, deliberately knocking her feet on several of their heads or clothing in an attempt to chase the visitors away from her young.Īnnie and Lou’s offspring are now nearly full-sized and beginning to acquire their wing and tail feathers. Malec crouched next Glucs and helped her by recording data about the birds in a small book. Glucs also took pin feathers from each bird’s upper back - for studies about any heavy metals present in birds of prey and also for genetic studies - and put them in small brown envelopes that she labeled, one for each chick. Males’ leg bones are thinner in that part of the leg than the females’ are. Glucs sat on the ground next to the nest and calmly, quickly and ethically measured the width of each chick’s legs, right above its feet, to determine the bird’s sex. The flooring of the narrow balcony where the nest box sits was littered with the remains of prior falcon meals - a wing here, feathers there - and lots of bird droppings. Several of the visitors felt her feet thump on their heads. That band number is associated with all the data collected about the bird at the time of banding.Īnnie shrieked and made many passes over the heads of the people involved with banding her chicks. The first band was issued by the national Bird Banding Laboratory and has a unique nine-digit number that differentiates the chick from all other birds banded in North America. Glucs gave each chick two leg bands that will stay in place for the rest of the birds’ lives. Zeka Glucs, director of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group - ended, Lou flew in carrying a large bird for the family of five’s next meal. Just as today’s examination and banding - completed by Dr. “They’re eating a lot of pigeon,” added Sean Peterson, an environmental biologist with Cal Falcons. One female is significantly larger than her siblings, but all three are developing normally and beginning to sprout wing and tail feathers. Less than a month ago, the chicks hatched in their gravel nest box now they are nearly full-sized. Here, she uses her bare hands instead of wearing gloves so that the chick’s fragility can be acutely felt and safeguarded in the process. Zeka Glucs, director of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group, comes to UC Berkeley annually to examine and band the new falcon chicks in the tower. ![]()
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