Capitol's falcon chicks get banded

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By the Lincoln Journal Star

For the third year in a row, a peregrine falcon pair have started a new family in a nest atop the state Capitol. On Thursday, the four chicks got unique numbers of their own -- Nebraska Game and Parks staffers banded the chicks with aluminum bands. 

Little white heads pecked their way out of speckled rust eggs earlier this month.

Four baby peregrine falcons have hatched and survived at the Capitol nest since it was installed in 2003, Program Manager Joel Jorgensen said. And all have been named in Game and Parks naming contests each summer.

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Four peregrine falcon chicks sit together on a table in the 14th floor chamber of the State Capitol after Nebraska Game and Parks Commission employees examined and banded them Thursday. (Eric Gregory)

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Pioneer hatched in spring 2005. Last summer three birds hatched and survived: Willa, Bess and Sterling, named after two Nebraska authors, Willa Cather and Bess Streeter Aldrich, and politician and co-founder of Arbor Day, J. Sterling Morton.

The parents are unnamed, identified by their band numbers only.  Dad is 19/K. Mom is A/*K. At least Jorgensen assumes A/*K has returned this year, though he hasn't been able to see the female bird's band.

There will be another naming contest this summer. And by late summer or fall the youngsters will take off to make their own way, likely never to return to their birthplace.