# Bay City - Peregrine falcon



## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

LOVE IS IN THE AIR 

http://www.mlive.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1171037706239030.xml?bctimes?NEB&coll=4

02/09/07 By JEFF KART TIMES WRITER 
A pair of rare peregrine falcons seems to like living in Bay City. 

One of the endangered birds may have come here from Minnesota, Ohio or Wisconsin, state officials say. 

Local birders say one peregrine falcon first spotted at the Bay City Hall clock tower on Washington Avenue on Dec. 30 has been joined in recent weeks by a second falcon.

A second raptor was spotted briefly in early January, but two birds have been seen more frequently since then. 

''It's kind of intriguing and enticing that they're still hanging around, especially with these bone-chilling temperatures,'' said Joe Soehnel, a Hampton Township birder. ''My sense was they were going to take off.'' 

Soehnel said he thinks an ample supply of pigeons, which peregrine falcons like to eat, is keeping the rare birds in town. 

''They're going, 'Hey, why leave? We've got easy pickin's down here,''' Soehnel said. 

Doug Jackson of Bay City, a wildlife photographer who has been watching the birds, said he's spotted a band on one of the two falcons, which haven't been seen together but have been hanging out at the clock tower off and on for several weeks. 

The band indicates one bird was born in the wild but tagged by wildlife agencies for tracking purposes, said Ray Rustem, a supervisor for the Department of Natural Resources in Lansing. 

The band on one of the birds, the smaller of the two, looks like it has the number ''33'' on it.

That means it's possible the bird is one of six peregrine falcons - three males and two females - tagged in Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, Rustem said. 

Jackson and others are watching the birds to see if they can make out a letter that appears next to the ''33,'' which will allow officials to pinpoint where the banded bird is from. 

Jackson said it appears to him that the larger of the two birds, without a band and with spots on its breast, is the female. Peregrine falcons are gray, about the size of a crow.

Rustem said the birds may be here to stay. If that's the case, locals can expect to see spectacular aerial courtship displays by March or mid-March. 

''If they zone in on a certain area of the building, that might indicate they're getting ready to nest,'' Rustem said. 

''A lot of times, when we get pairs like this, depending on their age, they may hang around and display courtship- and breeding-type behaviors, but not lay eggs. Sometimes, it may take them a couple of years.'' 

Pairs usually stay together for a number of years. Only about 20 pairs of peregrine falcons are nesting in Michigan, DNR officials say.


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## Hamilton Reef (Jan 20, 2000)

May be time for the peregrine watchers to be constructing a hacking box while the falcons decide the best nesting location. Good luck.


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## VARMINTHUNTERLAKEORION (Jan 12, 2005)

I saw a Falcon yesterday, while fishing the Saginaw river - there was a bunch of pigeons roosting on a billboard sign and he busted straight into them - I didn't see him come out from the sign, so I'm assuming he got one of the flying rats.


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## Huntermom (Sep 19, 2000)

Saw one of them on Friday, I work in the County Building, and had to run upstairs, and a pigeon was flying by for all he was worth, with that falcon hot on his feathers.


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## chamberlinjag (Aug 24, 2008)

I'm new to this forum I was looking for info on peregrine falcons, I have one who likes to visit about once a week to eat my birds that eat out of my bird feeder. I live in bay city, michigan near case ave.


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