Banding together: Annie, Gary and Tom

It’s a girl! And a boy! And another boy! Well, one female and two males. Resident Peregrine parents Rupert and Mimi, were once again successful in hatching three fuzzy falcons near the rooftop of UW-Green Bay’s makeshift cliff, the Cofrin Library. They were banded Wednesday, May 30, 2018 in the plaza level of the Cofrin Library.

It’s the second consecutive successful hatch on the campus, thrilling bird-lovers who are cheering on the endangered birds as they are reclaiming territory in Northeast Wisconsin. Peregrine falcons are native to Wisconsin but had vanished by the 1960s due to habitat loss and extremely low production of young. Pesticides such as DDT thinned the eggs of the raptors, causing them to fail. One of the eggs did not hatch and will be kept for research purposes.

The seven-week-old falcons were quickly named this year (no campus contest) for those who helped Greg Septon (Wisconsin Falcon Watch) with the banding process. Annie (for Annie and Paul Mueller — bird enthusiasts who have donated a sum of money to install a webcam for the next year’s nest box), Gary (for Chancellor Gary L. Miller) and Tom (for Tom Erdman, Emeritus Curator, Richter Museum). Congratulations to the Cofrin Center for Biodiversity and all involved with this success story!

Read last year’s story which provides a brief history of the falcon reintroduction on the UW-Green Bay campus. See more photos taken by Richter Museum Curator Daniel Meinhardt.

Click to advance slideshow or view the album on Flickr.

– Photos by Dan Moore, Marketing and University Communications