May 15th is Endangered Species Day, a day set aside by Congress in 2002 to recognize the importance of protecting and preserving rare and endangered species worldwide. The peregrine falcon, once close to extirpation in North America caused by the use of the chemical DDT, has made a remarkable comeback over the last 30 years.
In the early 1990's, a small group of dedicated falconers and scientists began breeding and raising falcons in captivity as part of reintroduction program in North America. Their preliminary efforts were successful but limited to cities and areas where nesting boxes had been erected on skyscrapers and power plant smokestacks. Peregrines didn't begin returning to historical nesting sites on the Mississippi River in greater numbers until Bob Anderson, founder of the Raptor Research Project in Decorah Iowa, raised a brood of chicks in a box attached to a cliff in. Effigy Mounds National Monument. In his essay, Bringing The Duck Hawk Home, Anderson describes how he and his colleagues, "built a special chamber designed to look like a cliff ledge, in which eighteen young peregrines were raised in 1998 and 1999...[because] it was our belief that this chamber would imprint peregrines to rock face rather than man-made objects."
Prior to the reintroduction, Dan Berger, was the falconer who recorded the last pair of peregrines nesting at Maiden Rock Bluff. Today, each spring the Raptor Resource Project regularly bands the peregrine chicks at Maiden Rock Bluff.
Falcon facts
Peregrine falcons migrate to the Gulf of Mexico or South America for the winter and are expected to return to our region each spring.
Courtship behavior takes place in March with egg laying occurring in early April. Hatching of the clutch of eggs (usually 3 to 5) normally occurs in early May with the young falcons fledging in early July. Falcons prey mostly on pigeons, which are found in abundance near Dairyland’s generating stations.
Scientific Name: Falco peregrinus (meaning wanderer)
Status in Wisconsin: endangered
Length: female 18 to 21 inches; male 15 to 18 inches
Wingspan: female 45 inches; male 40 inches
Weight: female 32 to 40 ounces; male 20 to 25 ounces
Clutch Size: Usually 3 to 5 eggs
Incubation Period: 34 days
Age at fledging: 40 to 45 days
Identification: Crow-sized bird with pointed wings, blue-gray upperparts, black or blue-gray cap, black stripe below eye, white chin, buff breast barred with brown, bright yellow legs and feet; crossbow-like silhouette while in flight.