The Birds:

Aplamado falcons are strikingly beautiful. The second group of 7 chicks arrived yesterday and was placed in the hack box where they will mature a bit more, grow accustomed to their surroundings, and learn that the tower represents food and home base. These new chicks dramatize the development of the first 7 which have been in our care for 2.5 weeks. During that time they have grown from downy-headed 33 day old innocents into sleek adolescent pre-hunters with 26-28” wing spans. They have become individuals with subtle differences in markings, behaviors and interactions. Their days are spent in exploration of their abilities and their world; these activities interspersed with periods of preening and rest while perched upright or laying flat on their bellies. It’s a bit disconcerting that, at rest, they often close just one eye while leaving the other alertly open.
We especially enjoy watching them develop their flight skills (Aplamados, like Peregrines, are incredibly aerodynamic) and tuning into their hunting instincts – at this stage following grasshoppers on the ground and tracking flying insects with their vision (at least 10X more acute than humans). The first chase we observed involved two pursuing a pronghorn antelope! The large mammal could, of course, never be considered prey but a chase is a chase and the antelope obligingly ran. In adulthood they will fly with great agility and speed in pursuit of large insects and smaller birds, their primary prey.
Aplamados don’t generally pair for two or more years when they will “spruce up” a nest previously constructed by a raven or other large bird, lay eggs and raise young. Peregrine Fund staff also place artificial nest boxes to help the process and one has been erected just inside the electric fence (a perimeter barrier erected to discourage bison from rubbing against the tower) for these to become familiar with and to provide them another shady perch site.
It is an extraordinary experience to be given the mandate to simply observe other creatures. It is generally interesting and sometimes exciting but with long periods akin to watching paint dry. It requires attention and endurance and rewards one not only with insight into the life of these birds, but glimpses of the interconnected lives of all creatures in this superficially barren landscape. As another crimson desert dawn was breaking today we were treated to a panorama of bison in the background, pronghorn antelope with twin fawns and a coyote passing through the middle space, and quail, lizards and rabbits almost underfoot. All this set to the music of songbirds and chirping insects with the Aplamados performing aerial ballet overhead. Well worth going to work for!

ore photos of "place." Erv's foot missed this diamonback's larger cousin by 2"!

The place...

Though the vistas are strikingly beautiful, this is a harsh land. Temperatures in our canvas-topped observation platform reach the upper 90's daily and well over 100 in the sun. The fauna is classic Chihuahuan desert - yucca, mesquite, creosote and a variety of brittle grass clumps with a scattering of other cacti, thistle and other small, desert tolerant plants; many defended by arrays of thorns and bristles. During our first three days we enjoyed the dramatic clouds and afternoon rains of the season’s monsoons, but in the week since it has been clear and hot and dry. The greening grasses have retreated into their brittle old growth. A few, striking wild flowers recall the short bounty of moisture. Pronghorn and bison have moved on to greener browse and, other than the continuing array of birds, the wildlife who now visit are of the rabbit, ground rodent, lizard, tortoise and occasional rattlesnake varieties. We are relieved that the falcon fledglings have developed to a point where we are able to leave for naps and AC through the midday hours.

Yippee! We’re on the road again where we feel most alive and content. “Home” now is a gently used 24’ RV in which we travel and live and work; a virtual palace in comparison with last years tent and bunkhouse living! Through our naturalist's lifestyle we honor it’s previous owner, Jan Arrott, a dear friend whom we met in her capacity as originator of the "Friends of the Las Vegas National Wildlife Refuge" which, like our own Bosque del Apache, is a winter sanctuary for crane and waterfowl.
As of July 2, our “home” is parked behind the headquarters of Ted Turner’s Armendaris Ranch, a 350,000+ acre spread in south central New Mexico. We’ve graciously been given the keys to “Ted’s place” by Tom Waddell, ranch manager whose acquaintance alone has been worth the trip. Tom is an unassuming, salt-of-the-earth man with a steel-trap mind. His managerial and scientific work is seasoned by wry observations of human nature and by depth of knowledge gained through personal study and his lengthy experience here and with Arizona’s Dept.of Fish and Game. The ranch runs about 12,000 head of bison and hosts, among other things, scientific study and/or reintroduction projects for Bolson’s tortoise, prairie dogs, big horn sheep, cougars (mountain lion) and our own Peregrine Fund project with Aplamado falcons. The ranch also includes a huge cave where hundreds of thousands of free- tail Mexican bats emerge nightly – we’re eager to see that - and so much more. It’s difficult to express how excited and fortunate we feel to be here.
Yesterday our first clutch of seven young Aplamado Falcons was flown in from Idaho and placed into the hack-site box atop a 15’ tower (in a remote section of the ranch where the buffalo roam) by Paul, one of our Peregrine Fund supervisors. Erv and I are the attendants for this site and will care for and monitor the young birds in the box for about six days then upon release until they are self sufficient. We man one of several hack sites in southern New Mexico and Texas where the Peregrine Fund is continuing its successful project to reintroduce this falcon into traditional habitat where it became endangered and vanished in the 1930s.
That first night was pretty exciting for the birds and for us as New Mexico’s monsoon season (not an oxymoron) began with an amazing display of lightening and torrential downpours. The next morning was no less exciting. A part of our duties include feeding the chicks portions of quail (thawed and quartered)at first light and at dusk. Our 5:30am drive to the tower was highlighted by near-entrapment in mud (envision the first stage of a fossilized specimen) then challenge by an advancing herd of 35 or so bison (all but the calves were larger than Erv’s Tracker) who must have felt really frisky after the rain. We had no idea those big critters could move so fast!
And so it begins – on the road again. Wonder what's next!