Three fuzzy eyasses, two females and a male, were banded yesterday, May 22. Unfortunately, one of the females has frounce (a type of avian trichomoniasis), so she was removed from the ledge and is now being evaluated and treated by a vet. At this time, it appears that she may be treated early enough in the progression of the disease to have a full recovery.
This disease is caused by a protozoan parasite carried by pigeons. It is nasty stuff. Plaque-like structures form in the bird's mouth, esophagus, and crop, and, if not treated, the bird either suffocates or starves from blockage caused by the plaque. We lost two young to frounce in 1995 and one in 1996. These birds had either fledged or were ready to fledge, so they were too mobile to catch until they were weakened by the disease. For them, it was too late for effective treatment. So, we're lucky that we were able to catch it earlier in this young female. We will post updates on her progress.
During banding, Bell, as usual, became a screeching, feathered fury when the window washing stage started to swing out in the direction of the nest ledge. She has never shown fear of humans, and this is never more obvious than during banding. She landed on the railing of the stage and stayed there until it neared the ledge; then she began strafing the engineer running the stage and the two banders. Between flights, she perched on the stage or on the ledge itself, hurling peregrine invective at the intruders. She was, of course, doing what she's supposed to do - vigorously defending her chicks. She rode the railing of the stage all the way back up to the top of the building. Probably, from her point of view, she had successfully defended her young and chased the intruders off! A few minutes later, she flew to the nest ledge to check on the eyasses, and life on the ledge returned to its normal routine.
