Monday, August 04, 2008

Rock City Raptors and Peregrine Release Project




Hey,

Rock City Raptors continues through Labor Day, September 1, 2008 with shows Wednesday-Sunday at 11, 1, and 3 Eastern Time (an additional show on Saturday ay 4:30). We are in the middle of a Peregrine Falcon Hacking program. We currently have a male captive hatched Peregrine named "Rocky" in a hacking box located at Rock City. Rocky will be released on August 12th and it is hoped that he will return to the Lookout Mountain area in 2-3 years to nest. The general idea behind hacking is where a young bird of prey makes its first flight is the area it will return to nest. This technique has been used to restore many populations of raptors including Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, Osprey and Peregrine Falcons. In the Chattanooga area, a male Peregrine Falcon named Roi established a nesting territory on a railroad bridge near the Chickamauga Dam. Roi was originally hacked from a release site at Cloudland Canyon State Park, near Trenton, Georgia in 1992. This release site is some 20 miles from the Dam nest site. He was there for many years and fledged a number of young with several different females, the last being Dreama. Unfortunately, last year, Roi was injured and ultimately died from his injuries at UT Vet School in Knoxville, Tennessee. Dreama was sighted around the nest site until around March of this year and then left, perhaps lured away by a new mate. We hope that Rocky or perhaps Garnet, a male released two years ago at Rock City, will return to continue the Peregrine breeding in this area. For more info about Rocky, and his journey, please go to: www.seerockcity.com/birds/rocky.htm .
Thanks!

John and Dale


p.s. We are booking program for the Fall-Spring now. Please call 706-657-3278 or e-mail us at s.o.a.r.south@hotmail.com

p.s.s. photos of Rocky and the hack box by Harold Sharp of the Riverwalk Bird Club. Thanks, Harold!

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