Red and White (named by their leg bands) both moved out onto the porch. We had noticed that Red was poorly coordinated. This was one of the extra birds we received that had fallen from its nest in Idaho. Red flew on that first day of freedom, but landed in the water and paddled to shore. It was put back into the nest box by attendants, but three days later, fell off the tower and was taken to a veterinarian. Red was subsequently shuttled to another veterinarian and then to the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital where it died on August 12. A necropsy determined that it died from a blood clot at the base of the brain, possibly from the original fall from the nest. This was the only bird of 10 received that we lost.
That period while the birds were fledging, we were busy tracking them, using the telemetry equipment when they were out of sight. If two volunteers were at the site, one would follow the radio signal until we could see the bird and determine it's safety. We recorded their locations about every half hour. If we couldn't get a radio signal for a bird for an hour, we used the radio to call the DOW employees to help
