Young Falcons Named and Banded!

Congratulations to the winners of our falcon naming contest! Those who visit our Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn pages were eligible to submit suggestions for names of our young falcons (eyasses) that hatched at our Manitowoc nesting box in early May. Our retiree panel reviewed a list of the submissions (excluding the name of the person posting) and selected the winners who will receive a Briess hat and bag of malted milk balls.

Vienna is the winning name for the female (pictured above on the left). Names for the three males are Prinz2, Charlie Cara Brown, and Wingo Starr. Shout out goes to Betsy Roberts of our Quality team for coming up with the spin on the Cara Brown submission when we discovered we had three males. Foremost Wisconsin ornithologist, Charles Sontag, who is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin/Manitowoc assisted with the banding and we therefore added Charlie to the winning name to honor his participation in the event over the past several years.

As of the time of this writing, the eyasses were thriving and at more than a month old and were banded and named on May 28 at our Manitowoc location. Greg Septon, founder of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery program uses two bands on the young birds. One is a federal band for tracking and the other is a program band that is used for identification from the webcam. They have changed incredibly since the banding; watch them grow and leave the nest on our Falcon Cam. It will be interesting to see who returns next year!

Did you know that falcons are the fastest animal when in a swoop and they have been clocked at more than 200 miles per hour? To learn more amazing facts, click here for an article from the Smithsonian.