Today I’m honoring Dorothy with this video retrospective of her best photographic moments.

If you’ve only known her since last spring, you missed knowing the real Dorothy. She was dynamic, energetic, fierce and powerful. From the time I met her in 2001 until her egg bound spring of 2014, she had fire in her eyes. After that, age-related health issues subdued her. I hope this video gives you a taste of what you missed.

Every year Dorothy raised three to five young peregrines — every year — and many of them went on to raise young peregrines of their own. With 43 fledglings and a host of descendants she increased the peregrine populations of Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan and the Pittsburgh area … and those are the places we know about!

Dorothy was awesome. She was the first wild bird I ever knew as an individual and the bird that changed my life. I will miss her greatness but not her decline.

Yo, Dorothy! You go, girl!

(YouTube video by Kate St. John with thanks to the photographers who made this possible: Peter Bell, Brian Cohen, Jessica Cernic Freeman, Sharon Leadbitter, Donna Memon, Mike Perzel, Jack Rowley, Pat Szczpanski, Steve Valasek and the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh)



Note: If you cannot play the video above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Information on Dorothy’s lineage: Mother was Sibella (20V20), Peregrine Recovery Program captive-bred and released at Feldtman Ridge on Isle Royale National Park, Michigan on 20 July 1988. Father was Bill (74T), Peregrine Recovery Program captive-bred and released from Van Hise Hall at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990. Data from Greg Septon: