State budget clips plans to band courthouse falcons

YOUNGSTOWN — Three peregrine falcons hatched on or about June 23 on a Mahoning County Courthouse window ledge, but wildlife officials’ ability to monitor the new members of this threatened species is being compromised by the state’s budget woes.

Dan Kramer, an Akron-based regional wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said he has had to cancel the trip he planned to make Wednesday to band the newborn birds because the state’s interim budget forbids non-essential travel by state employees.

The birds can’t be banded after Monday because they’ll develop to the point where they’ll be too mobile to catch easily and could fall off the window ledge in a banding attempt, Kramer said Tuesday.

“The window ledge is fairly narrow, and there’s no lip on it,” Kramer said, adding that outward cranking windows make the job more difficult. The chicks won’t be ready to fly until the last week of this month, he added.

Read more in Wednesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com