Bird Banding @ 55 Water St.

I had an awesome opportunity to tag along with Chris Nadareski from the DEP as he banded the 4 young from the 55 Water St. nest (2 male, 2 female). Like all great bird handlers, Chris was calm, relaxed and professional as he took on the not so easy task of wrangling a very PO'ed mama peregrine. In fact she refused to leave the nest,

so Chris hand captured her in order to safely remove the babies!


Here's her release and subsequent joining up with the male to defend the nest.

With the babies safely in baskets, we began the work of health checks and tagging.


Checking for lice and mites...

checking for frounce.

The outstretched finger prompts a feeding response in the chick so you can look in the mouth and throat.

The good people of 55 Water St., the NYC DEP and our future bird taker-carer-of-ers!
We then returned the chicks...mom was not stoked to see us!


Back in da Nest!

All in all it they were away for about 30 minutes and once back in the scrape quickly returned to their mother's incredible care and protection. Thanks again to 55 Water St., The New York Post, the NYC DEP and all the people out there who care! Good luck little guys...we'll be watching.