If you're planning on doing some birding this weekend, keep your eyes peeled for a Peregrine Falcon with a satellite telemetry unite on its back.

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Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in eastern Pennsylvania reports:

   A female Peregrine Falcon named "Elizabetha" tagged with a satellite transmitter is now heading south from northeastern Canada, and is expected to pass through the Middle Atlantic States perhaps as early as Saturday or Sunday, October 18 and 19.

    The falcon was banded on its wintering grounds in Chile, South America, on January 22, 2008, by the Falcon Research Group. Researchers there fitted the bird with a Hawk Mountain telemetry unit.

   The 'back-pack' satellite units have a short antenna and are easy to see. Hawk Mountain is now asking all birders to watch for the falcon in the next few days.

    Peregrine Falcons are fast-flying, and strong flapping raptors, with long, pointed wings, and a black face or "moustache."  This particular peregrine will stand apart due its antenna that extends at a 45-degree angle from her back.

    Those who see the bird should email Bud Anderson at the Falcon Research Group, bud@frg.org, and Keith Bildstein at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, bildstein@hawkmtn.org, and be sure to include the day, time and location.

   To follow Elizabetha's progress, visit www.frg.org, click on "Field Research," and go to "Southern Peregrine Project." Then, select "tracking maps," and click on "Elizabetha." To keep track of when and where to expect a possible sightings, scroll down to Elizabetha's map to follow her progress from the previous day and see where she roosted the night before.

Now is a great time to log on, as all of the project's four active falcons have started their annual 6,000 to 8,000 mile migration from the Canadian Arctic south through the eastern United States, through Central American and on along the western coast of South America to their final stop in the formidable Atacama Desert in Chile. Essentially, these powerful super migrants will cross two continents and more than a dozen countries on their southbound journeys.