Who’s that bird? It’s Ardy 06/D, a 2015 hatch from Ardent Milling in Lake City, MN! He’s been the resident male at our nestbox on the US Bank Building in La Crosse, WI since 2021, although my notes say that he visited the Great Spirit Bluff nestbox on April 13 of 2017.
February 27, 2025: Peregrine Falcon Ardy at US Bank. Ardy is a 2015 hatch from Ardent Milling in Lake City, MN: about 67 miles north as the falcon flies.
US Bank and Great Spirit Bluff are about five miles apart and it isn’t uncommon to see falcons exploring both sites, especially in the fall and late winter. They include Julie 90/Z (currently at US Bank, but Savanna chased her away from GSB in 2023), Zazu 18/U (currently hanging out at GSB, but courted Julie at US Bank earlier this year), Lisa 53/W (briefly spotted at both places in 2024), and Ardy himself.
Keeping Track
How do we know all this? Through banding and observation! Peregrine Falcon banders in the Midwest provide data to The Midwest Peregrine Falcon Database, which is maintained by the Midwest Peregrine Society. Its 11,000+ records show us how the peregrine population has grown and changed since 1987, when Peregrine Falcon MF-1 became the first Peregrine to return to the wild and breed mid-continent since the species’ extirpation in the mid-1950s. If you spot a band number at any of our sites, look it up here https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/?vw=search and pass it on to me!
Not going to lie – we love Peregrine Place and springtime drama! Who’s hooking up with who? Who got chased away from a nest box? Look, that falcon we banded five years ago survived and is all grown up now! But the true value of long-term record sets lies in their depth. They provide invaluable information about the ways in which the world around us is changing and how the species we study respond to it. We need data to understand and interpret a species’ behavior, population cycles, and the threats and challenges they face. Peregrines matter. Eagles matter. Data matters.
And Ardy? You’re looking GREAT! Here’s to another successful year at US Bank…talons crossed!
The Raptor Resource Project