Prairie Flier's first flight ended with a crash landing.
But after a little human help, the five-week-old peregrine falcon fledgling should be ready to test his wings again soon.
Both Prairie Flier and Hooligan Ace, the newest hatchlings from Fargo's peregrine nesting site, took their first flights Thursday, said local peregrine watcher Wick Corwin.
The Web camera that broadcasts activities from the nest, as part of Project: Peregrine Falcon, showed just an empty box of gravel Thursday.
That's what it looked like in the morning, when Corwin reached his office in the Wells Fargo building, just a parking ramp away from the Community First National Bank building where the falcon family lives.
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Corwin went outside to look for the birds and found Prairie Flier walking near the edge of the street about a block east of the bank, he said.
The fledgling had "minor bleeding" on one wing, but otherwise he appeared fine, Corwin said.
"This is very much expected; the first flights are the awkward ones," Corwin said.
It's a dangerous thing being a young falcon - only one in six survives to set up a nest of its own, Minnesota peregrine expert Bud Tordoff said when he came to Fargo to help affix identifying bands on the babies' legs.
First flights are one of the most dangerous times in young falcons' lives, Corwin said. Most of the time the birds can fly well enough, but they have trouble landing, he said. That's probably how Prairie Flier got hurt, he said.
Corwin put Prairie Flier on top of the Wells Fargo building's roof, so he was out of the reach of cars and other dangers, and so his parents could find and feed him.
The bird will probably stay on top of the roof until he works up the courage to try flying again, Corwin said. Though he hasn't spotted the second fledgling, Hooligan Ace is likely on another nearby rooftop, Corwin said.
The fledglings' parents, dubbed Frieda and Dakota Ace, will continue to feed and protect their offspring for a few more weeks, until Prairie Flier and Hooligan Ace can feed and care for themselves.
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Then, at seven to nine weeks, the fledglings will leave Fargo to look eventually for territories of their own, Corwin said.
Peregrine falcons were extremely rare in the 1960s and early 1970s. A reintroduction effort, however, has been so successful that the Midwest's peregrine population is estimated to be three times larger than it was under natural conditions, according to information from the Project: Peregrine Falcon Web site.
As part of that reintroduction effort, peregrines in the Midwest are tracked and marked with bands for identification purposes.
To see the peregrines' nesting box, visit Project: Peregrine Falcon at
Readers can reach Forum reporter Joy Anderson at (701) 241-5556
