Tim Driscoll suspected something was wrong when the oldest of the three peregrine falcon chicks hatched this spring atop the UND water tower simply disappeared.
A licensed bander and raptor expert, Driscoll, of Grand Forks, banded the peregrine in early June, naming him Carl after Carl Barrentine, an associate professor emeritus of humanities and integrated studies at UND.
The young peregrine was within days of fledging when he disappeared in late June, and a climber who scaled the tower Thursday, July 13, to check the nest box confirmed the worst, Driscoll said.
The peregrine chick was dead, its carcass badly decomposed.
"Based on what we know about when he hatched, he was about 37 days old when he disappeared," Driscoll said.
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What isn't known is how the peregrine chick died. It could have eaten poisoned prey, but parents Marv and Terminator appear to be fine, as do Carl's younger siblings, Chan and Julie, Driscoll said; west Nile virus is another possibility.
Driscoll says he usually takes blood samples when he bands the peregrine chicks but decided against it this year because of the large crowd that turned out for the June 12 public banding event.
"Had we taken blood, we would have been testing for west Nile right now," Driscoll said. "He had plumage flies when we banded him, but that is not normally a lethal thing."
Chan and Julie have taken their maiden flights, Driscoll said, adding he saw the chicks and their parents Monday. Chan is named for for Chandler Robbins, an influential American ornithologist who died in March at age 98. Julie is named after Julie LeFever, longtime director of North Dakota's geological core library at UND who died in December.
Carl is the second peregrine chick to be found dead in the nest box since Terminator first nested in Grand Forks in 2008. Helen, hatched in 2015 and named for Helen Hamilton, the first woman to graduate from the UND School of Law, met a similar fate.
Like many other banders, Driscoll names the birds he bands because it's easier to remember a name than a band number.
Since 2008, 29 peregrine chicks have hatched in Grand Forks, and Driscoll says he knows of eight casualties, including the two found dead in the nest box. At the same time, three chicks have been confirmed breeders in Winnipeg, St. Paul and most recently Moorhead, where Walsh, hatched in 2012 in Grand Forks, is the tending male of a nest that's new this year, Driscoll said.
In related peregrine news, Rand, the chick from the first-ever nest to be confirmed in Crookston, has been seen flying, Driscoll said. Rand is the first name of noted writer and conservationist Aldo Leopold, who went by his middle name.
