A peregrine falcon chick was the center of attention at the City Center public banding on June 14.
By Jackie Fallon
June 14, 2007
20 years of celebration
Today was a very exciting day for me and many, many others who are associated with the Midwest peregrine project. Today was the day scheduled for banding the three peregrine chicks at the City Center in downtown Minneapolis – known as Multifoods by those who knew of the project in the beginning. This site is special for many reasons. It’s the tallest of buildings where peregrines nest in the state, one of the most productive sites in the program, the first urban site to host a “hack box” of peregrine chicks, and most importantly, the first Minnesota site to produce a peregrine to hatch in the wild that survived long enough to take that first, magical flight since DDT took its devastating toll on peregrines in the wild.
A peregrine falcon chick was the center of attention at the City Center public banding on June 14.
In 1985, Dr. Bud Tordoff and Dr. Pat Redig approached the building management team at 66 S. 6th Street to see about the possibility of putting a hack box on the roof. This release box would house the young captive-bred peregrine chicks that the project acquired from various breeders. Thankfully, the management said yes and the project started the urban releases of peregrines in the Midwest. The Minnesota Falconer’s Association quickly jumped at the opportunity of continuing their work with the peregrines in the Midwest, and agreed to financially support the cost of one chick -- a female known as MF-1, who was released in the second group of birds in 1986. This pair, MF-1 and Billy Ray, became famous for producing the first peregrine to be produced, hatch, and fledge in the wild in Minnesota since the early 1960s. In the 1987 peregrine report, Dr. Tordoff wrote:
“The highlight of the 1987 season was the nesting in Minneapolis by Billy Ray…and MF-1(Muffin), a one-year-old female from Bob Anderson, provided by the Minnesota Falconers Association…We thought this half-molted motley-looking 1-year old female was too young to breed when she arrived in April, but Billy Ray’s expert courtship quickly brought her into breeding condition.”
MF-1 would continue to breed at this site until 1995, when she was found dead in the nest box of apparent rival peregrine injuries. Such is the life for a peregrine falcon.
In 2007, we chose to mark the anniversary of this historic occasion and make a “big to-do” about the banding. We wanted to involve and recognize all of those individuals and organizations who had a hand in the success of the first wild fledgling chick and all other peregrine chicks over the past 20 years. We had people who were there at the first day of opening the hack box in 1985, those who had contributed thousands of dollars to purchase chicks from breeders for release, the climbers who allow us access to the chicks that have since returned to the river bluffs of the Mississippi, those who raised the food to feed the young peregrine chicks, the organizations who supported with land and other types of in-kind support, and the many volunteers who spend hundreds of hours watching birds or being involved in some way.
This project is truly a community effort of people from many different walks of life. The recovery of the peregrine falcon is an event that shows how we can work together to find a solution for species recovery and change our ways.
Lastly, I would like to recognize the birds themselves for doing what they do best -- just being a peregrine falcon -- and to once again grace the skies of Minnesota and the lower 48 states. Hopefully, they will be around for many generations to come.