The Canadian Peregrine Foundation - Project Release

Saturday August 4, 2001
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Kathy Dodge has informed us of the sad news that Albert too has fallen victim to a Great Horned Owl, late in July.

Thursday July 19, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Good news- after not being seen for 4 days, Albert showed up at the hack box last night. He went straight for the food, and didn't stop until everything was gone. Thanks to all the volunteers who are still keeping a watchful eye and sent the word out as soon as he arrived. It will be interesting to see if he hangs around now for a couple of days or takes off again to do some further exploring.

Friday July 13, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Albert continues to be doing well. He is flying further and further each day and is spending more time away from the elevators. Where he goes is a mystery to everyone. He is chasing birds and has given a few gulls a real workout. But as of yet, we have not witnessed a kill, but it shouldn't be too long before his efforts are successful. Community interest is still high- we have a dedicated group that show up each night to watch Albert fly over to his night time roost on the cement silos.

Tuesday July 3, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Albert was spotted this morning in the hack box having a good meal.

I received a call today from someone who had found a wing in their backyard and it turns out to be a peregrine. An owl was in his tree all day Saturday, so it would seem that the mystery of Russell's fate has been solved.

Monday July 2, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Albert survived the fireworks last night! The community was very concerned that there might be a problem and lots of people checked in with us both before and after the festivities to make sure he was alright.

Albert continues to improve his flying skills, taking longer and more controlled flights. Today is the last day that we will have dawn to dusk monitoring, but we have several volunteers who are going to continue to check on him during the day.

Sunday July 1, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Albert managed to weather the storm and the strong winds today, and made it back to the hack box to eat in the early afternoon. He spent the rest of the day in the hack box resting, before making some good strong flights in the early evening.

Saturday June 30, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Sad news..... Russell seems to be missing. Volunteers showed up at 5AM and only one bird was visible. It was hoped that Russell had gone for an early fly, but inspection of the grain silos found some bloodied feathers. It would seems that Russell fell prey to an owl over night.

Albert is still improving, flying a bit more each day. He has started roosting on the other side of the river at night. Hopefully this will help him avoid the owl.

SPONSORS & PARTNERS:

The Grey-Bruce
Peregrine Recovery Team

Friday June 29, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: The heat of the last couple of days, is limiting the activity for most of the day. Russell continues to improve his flying skills. Fat Albert is doing some flying, but still seems to prefer running wherever he goes!

Thursday June 28, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Great news R1 finally flew. More updates later in the day.

The volunteers have named the birds. RI- which is the larger falcon, who has been doing only limited flying and seems much more interested in quail, has been affectionately named "Fat Albert". Later in the day, R2 needed a name and became known as "Russell" , Fat Albert's best friend from the Cosby show!

Russell continues to fly well, and is starting to take longer flights, testing the air currents and landing well. Fat Albert made his second flight of the day this evening, flying quite strongly over to the condos and back.

Wednesday June 27, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: The birds were both active first thing in the morning, 5:30 AM to 7:00 AM. But once the day started to heat up, they just found some shade to try and keep cool. They had moved to the east side of the building onto a small ledge. But both spent the day within eyesight of each other. Activity started again at about 6PM when R2 took quite a long flight out over the mouth of the river. It was a long flight and he appears to be flying very well. He was attempting to get back up to the hack box for some food.... which took some planning and several short flights to gain his altitude. But he made it and had a quick meal. R1 still hasn't flown!

Tuesday June 26, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: We released the birds on Tuesday at approx. 9:30 AM. Within about 15 minutes, both birds had ventured out of the hack box. There is quite a size and colour difference between the two birds, which has made keeping track of them much easier. R2 is smaller and lighter in colour, R1 is much darker and bigger.

R2 made his first flight at about 11AM. Just a short hop out over the Pottawatami River and returned back to the roof quite successfully. Although R1 has been doing a lot of wing flapping and running around on the roof, he appeared much more interested in having a good meal. He did not fly at all on the first day.

Lots of volunteers have been on hand all day to keep an eye on the birds both on land and in the water.

Monday June 25, 2001
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Kathy Dodge has informed me that the plan is to release the two chicks from their hack box tomorrow morning, Tuesday June 26. Watch for a report on their adventures out of the box.

Friday June 15, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Despite the heat of the past few days, the birds are doing well. The cool evenings here in Owen Sound have provided much needed relief. Both birds are losing their white down, replacing it with their darker juvenile plumage. They are eating well, each consuming a quail a day.

Friday June 8, 2001
Kathy Dodge reports: Two males aged 28 and 29 days were placed into the hack box on top of the Great Lakes Grain Elevators in Owen Sound Harbour. Volunteers and partners were on hand to see the banding to these two chicks prior to being placed into the hack box. These young birds will be fed for the next couple of weeks until they are ready to fly. Keep checking for the release date!

Wednesday June 6, 2001
Marcel Gahbauer reports: Plans for the Owen Sound release have progressed considerably over the past couple of months! A hack box has been constructed on a grain elevator near the harbour, and three chicks are scheduled for delivery to the hack box in Owen Sound on Friday, June 8. Watch for further updates on the chicks coming soon, along with photos of the site and the birds themselves.

Friday April 6, 2001
Marcel Gahbauer reports: We have just learned that partial funding is in place for a release of peregrines in Owen Sound this summer - details to follow.