Peregrine in Southeast PA

[gemiller]

READING PA AREA. Female Peregrine took up in a thermal and went MIA on last Saturday. Two transmitters on her. 216.050 and 216.030. Bird is well seasoned and lure trained. Any leads at all please contact 717-679-1000.

Bird was found in Pottstown on a soccer ball and collected by DCNR after someone put her in a box, DCNR released the bird assuming it was research telemetry without looking into lost birds or checking with state clubs(in their defense they weren't notified in time either by us in that jurisdiction; but I would have still expected a little better investigation on a bird wearing two transmitters, jesses(unknown if they were still on though), and anklets.)

So last known location on Monday was Pottstown.

We did a plane scan yesterday to no avail, but pilot would not allow antenna exterior on the plane so we're not sure how much value it had.

Hoping against odds we can get a ping on her somewhere.

[falcipiter]

greg,
I'll turn on my receiver and put on the omni directional antenna and scan in case she comes up North and over the ridges.

[460shooter]

Idiots!!! Yeah, researchers put telemetry on, THEN ATTACH ANKLETS!!! OF COURSE!!! Yeah that makes total sense.

Sounds like your field officers are as good as some of ours! Thankfully I have a good one now! Took 16 years though.

Sure hope ya get the bird back.

[Breeze]

Sorry to hear this; hope you get her back!

[gemiller]

Yea, it's a depressing situation. Fourth year imprint with many head of game flying just a hair under perfect weight, almost unbelievable it happened, but such is falconry. Perhaps instincts for this time of year, even in this case, outweighed our benefit.

Have a 3 o'clock with another pilot out of an airport near where DCNR released her tomorrow to see if we can get a beep with the yagi from the sky. As long as we can get a signal at least we'd have somewhere to start. The fact she let a stranger pick her up off a soccer ball says enough to us that if we can get signal we'll probably be fine.

Wish us luck.

[robbeth]

Good luck if your anywhere close you should get a signal from up in a plane

[Hawkmom]

Contact the HAM radio guys. They can scan for the signal as well.

[gemiller]

I officially now hate anyone that leaves transmitters on in the mews, or in their hawk boxes, or toolboxes, or anywhere but the field or at hack. We pull up into our search area and start running a grid. About 15 min in I get a distinct telemetry ping. Ran a grid on what we thought was our MIA peregrine. I pass coordinates to the ground who got an omni signal and then eventually a yagi and in the end to find some guy just leaves all his transmitters on even in the boxes and mews that we didn't even know was in the area. Even with reported lost bird in the area on two specific frequencies they were on. Wasted our whole expedition.

On a bright note grid running a signal via plane was a success but I do think our bird is gone unless it shows up physically now. We have no idea how much time was wasted dealing with bounce frequencies from this guys birds and equipment in the area when we did have an accurate lead on the bird.

[rri32701]

Did you ever find her

[gemiller]

No luck. We did get a follow up lead via a phone call from a bird watcher about a week and a half after the plane attempt in an area that was feasible/reasonable for her to be and we got there within about two hours from where the lady saw a bird with "things on it's legs" but no signal was to be found.

I got another call about a peregrine 4 hours west of us, and sent someone to take a look and a bird was indeed there but the only thing on it was a leg band (no falconers gear).

We've given up an active search but will still follow any leads obviously.