The birding community in the Grand Forks, ND area is in mourning today. Ozzie, the single chick from our first-ever-in-town peregrine falcon nest, died. He had *just* started to fly within the past day.
A witness and veteran birder described what happened. In summary:
"I came down to the Happy Face water tower this morning about 9:30, so I could check on seeing Ozzie fly. He was not up on the tower but across the street on an electric pole. He was squawking and one of the adults flew down to give him a lesson. The next thing I knew I saw him fly toward the water tower but he was too low and hit the electric lines and fell to the ground. This is so hard because he died. I called a number of people and with help from (our paper's editor and master birder) , talked to the Raptor Center in Saint Paul. (Ozzie had just been banded two weeks ago).
As I was trying to figure out who to call, one of the many people in the neighborhood, who had been watching his progress, came over; he had seen Ozzie fly around the tower yesterday afternoon about 5 p.m. and said he just made it back to the second tier of the tower.
(Our editor) came back a second time and brought me this poem and to make sure I was doing ok,
Time cannot break
The bird's wing from the bird,
Bird and wing together
Go down, one feather.
No thing that ever flew
Not the bird, not you,
Can die as others do.
by Edna Saint Vincent Millay"
RIP little one; accidents do happen and Nature can be so cruel . . . . but we all were so excited about your arrival. Your banding made front page news! http://www.grandforks.com/articles/?page=v...;property_id=40
Just wanted to remember him "in print" so to speak.