KathyQ is a wild-produced bird hatched on May 17, 1998 at Froedert Malt in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wild-produced means she is the product of parents who nested of their own volition and produced their own falcon families like our stellar Market Tower pair do each year.
However, you won’t find her listed in the University of Minnesota raptor database as KathyQ. If you haven’t already heard this story, I’ll explain how KathyQ, a.k.a. Chantal, came to be known as KathyQ in Indianapolis. If you have heard it, please bear with me.
When she arrived on the Indy falcon scene in 2002, she didn’t arrive without causing consternation among the Peregrine Patrol. We had already identified Scout, Kinney’s first mate, in the nestbox at the beginning of the year when courting and mating generally begins. We even think Scout may have laid the eggs that year but shortly after they were laid, we no longer were able to identify her. A new bird was visible in the nestbox and obviously settling in to stay. Kinney was still around; the new unidentified female was there, but no Scout.
We couldn’t get a good read on the bands on the new girl in town so we began to call her KathyQ in honor of Kathy Quimbach, a DNR employee who worked closely with the falcon volunteers and was tireless and passionate in her devotion to Indiana’s endangered wildlife. She had passed away unexpectedly in 2001 and we wanted to honor her memory. That name was so ingrained with the Peregrine Patrol that by the time the female was positively identified as Chantal in late May 2002, we just kept calling her KathyQ.
Who knows the real saga of KathyQ/Chantal and how she arrived and triumphed in Indy? Scout’s carcass was never found. It took me some time to adjust to the new falcon matriarch at Market Tower. I had watched Scout for so long and had come to know her habits - it was hard to let go. But I have grown to respect and admire the strength of KathyQ. The “style” of parenting between the two females was different in my eyes. To me, Scout seemed a worrier while KathyQ is just one fierce lady. Excellent mothers both.
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