Chick names hearken to program’s roots

Peregrine falcons hatched in Port named for iconic characters, song of 1992, the year We Energies launched its successful effort to save the beleaguered raptors

PORT WASHINGTON’S NEWEST peregrine chicks were banded and given names from 1992 — the year We Energies began its falcon nesting program — at the Port power plant last week. The birds included Goldie (right) and her brothers Jump, Barney and Garth. Photo by Sam Arendt
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

Port Washington’s four resident peregrine falcon chicks were given names that hearken to 1992 — the year We Energies began its peregrine nesting program — last week.

The lone female in the clutch was named Goldie in honor of the popular “Golden Girls” television show.

“Hopefully she has as much fire as Sophie,” Mike Grisar, a We Energies biologist who helps manage the utility’s peregrine program, said.

Goldie’s three brothers were named Barney, for the purple dinosaur beloved by children; Jump, for the Badgers rally song “Jump Around” by the House of Pain;  and Garth for the character in “Wayne’s World.”

“Party on Garth,” We Energies spokesman Alison Trouy said, using a catchphrase from the movie.

Barney was the smallest of the clutch, while Goldie was the largest and most vocal, loudly making her presence known during the event at which the birds were not only named but banded.

Each chick received two bands, a silver Fish and Wildlife Service band on one leg and a colored project band on the other that can be easily read from a distance, making it easier to identify the birds.

“Banding teaches us a lot, allows us to learn a lot,” Greg Septon of the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project, who banded the birds, said.

The birds can live to be 18 or older, although about half of them will die within the first year, he said.

The pandemic, Septon said, has been good for those interested in the peregrines.

“Since Covid, we’ve had a tremendous increase in the number of birdwatchers,” he said, and these people have taken numerous photos of the birds they view. “I’ve been getting more and more pictures of peregrines.”

And from those photos, he said, he’s been able to track the birds.

He talked about a Wisconsin bird that spends his winters near O’Hare Airport in Chicago, and another that heads to Austin, Texas.

“Without these bands, we’d never know that,” he said.

The fact Goldie was the largest of the siblings is to be expected, Septon said.

Female chicks typically are much larger than the males, he said.

The chicks are typically banded when they are 18 to 24 days old, Septon said. Any earlier, and it’s difficult to determine their sex. Any older, and they could be frightened from the nest when they’re taken out for the banding.

“They’ve got a lot of growing yet,” Septon said, although their feet and talons are full sized.

The chicks will soon begin to learn to fly, then how to hunt starting with small prey such as dragonflies and butterflies and graduating to small birds.

“As soon as the young become proficient (at hunting), they will move on,” Septon said. “They can go great distances.”

But typically, he said, males will remain within 100 miles of where they were hatched and females within 200 miles.

The birds become attached to the nesting sites where they settle, he said, and will return year after year.

Some peregrine pairs remain together for much of their lives, Septon added.

The Port banding was Septon’s second at a We Energies site this year. A week earlier, he banded chicks at the Oak Creek power plant — including the 400th chick banded in Wisconsin.

It’s a remarkable milestone, Septon said, “when you think about how rare these birds are. With as few of the chicks as are banded each year, milestones are sometimes hard to come by.”

The Port chicks were produced by Brinn, who was hatched at Split rock State Park in Minnesota in 2012 and has been at the Port plant for nine years, and Beasley, who was hatched in 2014 and has been in Port for six years.

Last year, three of the pair’s four eggs hatched. The previous year, none of  their four eggs hatched.

The peregrine has made a remarkable comeback since it was found to be extinct east of the Mississippi River in 1964.

The birds historically nested on the cliffs over the Mississippi River, but as DDT that was once used on crops built up in their bodies, it caused the eggs they laid to have thinner shells that couldn’t support the weight of the parent during incubation, causing the population to plummet.

Septon has been a guiding force in the falcon’s recovery efforts, which began in 1987.

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