WINDSOR, Ont. — Lady Gaga is in Windsor.
The squawking chick that was carefully removed from the peregrine falcon nest at the Ambassador Bridge Monday was dubbed Lady Gaga and the joke is she might not like her new jewelry. It’s an aluminum leg band.
“She sang at us the whole time. Very vocal,” Marion Nash of the Canadian Peregrine Foundation said after fending off the chick’s dive-bombing parents so the 23-day-old ball of fluff could be banded.
Nash said she’d been hoping one of the peregrine nest sites in Ontario would agree to a name that’s memorable.
“I think it’s awesome,” she said of the Lady Gaga tag. “People will like the bird because of the name. She could be X over 7, but that’s impersonal.”
Peregrine falcon watchers under the bridge will know her by the red tape — with binoculars they could spy her 64-X black Canadian Wildlife Services band. The aluminum bling is her U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services ID.
Also getting the leg jewelry Monday was a smaller 668-gram male peregrine falcon chick named Spitfire in honour of the city’s two-time Memorial Cup winning hockey team. He has yellow tape on his band.
It’s the third time Freddie and Voltaire, the nesting peregrine falcons at the Ambassador Bridge, have had chicks. Last year’s trio were banded and named Windsor, Bridgette and Lancer.
There were three eggs this year, but one unhatched egg was likely eaten by the female adult.
Bander Pud Hunter of the Ministry of Natural Resources said the successful peregrine falcon parents are a good sign for the birds and people. The peregrine falcon population plummeted during the use of the pesticide DDT and they’ve been making a comeback thanks to recovery programs and the banning of DDT. They were endangered but in Ontario are now listed as threatened.
Hunter said of the 81 peregrine falcon territories in Ontario, 51 have nests with young. That’s up from zero in 1980, he said.
Dennis Patrick, the site co-ordinator with the Canadian Peregrine Foundation-Windsor Watch, said volunteers were concerned at first because the hatchings were late this year and other sites have been reporting fewer eggs.
Patrick said Ambassador Bridge officials have been supportive. The bridge allowed a nest tray with pea gravel to be placed on the ledge, which is about 80 to 90 feet above ground and just below the bridge deck. The box boosts the chances of successful hatches. Patrick said he’s hoping to see four or five eggs next year.
“It’s the difference between sleeping on boulders to going to a Sealy Posturepedic mattress.”
Centreline donated a lift Monday to get bridge workers and Nash up to the nest. Nash, as she’s done for about 17 years, acts as the bad guy. With a helmet and a broom for protection, she distracts the adult falcons, who flew within three feet of her Monday.
She lowers the chicks in a bag to officials below who band them. The squawking chicks are calmed by their first taste of water as they get weighed and banded.
Nash stays up at the nest and when the chicks are placed back on the ledge, the parents feel they have successfully driven away the predator.
Hunter said the Windsor area could support another nesting pair which usually have to trade cliffs for tall buildings in an urban setting. The three youngsters from last year could be anywhere in North America or even South America now — peregrine means wanderer — and aren’t ready to mate.
Seventy to 80 per cent of chicks die before turning a year old but if they survive, peregrine falcons can live 12 to 15 years in the wild.
Mark Whelan, 50, of Windsor was waiting beneath the bridge Monday to see peregrine falcon chicks up close for the first time.
“I think it’s great that we have this in Windsor. I think it adds a nice element to urban living.”
Video of Lady Gaga and Spitfire:
http://www.windsorstar.com/videos/news/video.html?embedCode=B4YmZpMjpHceA2g_uQCtvajm3Lzkc5wy
Volunteers will be watching the nest from dawn to dusk in the next few weeks when the birds could make their first flight. To join the group email wpfw2011@gmail.com.
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