11/02/2015
One of Merri and Lance’s offspring this year, nicknamed "Jane", was recently spotted in Cape May, New Jersey, a distance of nearly 400 miles from UMass Lowell!
Avid falcon watchers Chris and Chad Saladin were vacationing in Cape May at the mouth of the Delaware River when they chanced upon the juvenile falcon on Oct. 8 and took close-up photos of her. The couple, who has been observing and studying peregrine falcons in northeastern Ohio since the late 1990s, made the trip to the East Coast observe the annual fall migration of raptors.
"We were walking around the boardwalk and saw this young falcon as she perched and preened for a while in a dead tree snag," they reported. "We were able to snap some shots of her taking off, and we noticed that she was wearing a leg band — 90/BD, black/green."
Tom French of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, who had banded Jane in June, confirmed the juvenile’s identity. (You can see Tom’s video of Merri attacking him during the banding on MassWildlife's YouTube Channel).
Local veteran falcon watchers Ursula and David Goodine, who are good friends with Chris and Chad, were also on their annual birding trip to Cape May around the same time, but they were observing the migrating hawks and falcons in another area so they didn’t get to see Jane.
You can read their full report of the Cape May sighting on their Facebook page.
It’s not clear if Jane would remain in the Cape May area. She might decide to continue heading south for the winter or return to New England in spring. Nobody knows for sure. So far, there has been no sighting of Jane’s other siblings (a female and two males). The entire brood left its nest site atop Fox Hall around early August.
You can follow the Falcons anytime on Twitter @UMLHawkwatch and news updates @Edwelda.