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Falcon invasion at UT? |
| By
Cynthia Nowak |
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Dec 13, 2006 |
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You might have heard their haunting cries echoing around University Hall’s courtyards or been startled to see them dive-bombing a hapless pigeon. Either way, it seems likely that a pair of peregrines have taken up residence at UT, making them the only falcons for whom a welcome mat might be unrolled (unlike the reception traditionally reserved for the Bowling Green variety).
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| A peregrine falcon recently perched on University Hall Tower on Main Campus. |
Placed on the federal endangered species list in 1970, the American peregrine falcon has been successfully introduced into many eastern U.S. states, but Ohio’s first nesting pair wasn’t identified until 1988 at a downtown Toledo site. Since the birds in the wild prefer high rocky ledges to build their nests, tall buildings make an ideal urban habitation for them; to date, the Commodore Perry Hotel is the only documented peregrine nesting site in Toledo. Statewide, 19 breeding pairs are recorded.
The species’ rebound has made it one of the conservation movement’s success stories and it was removed from the endangered species list in 1999.
At present it’s not yet known whether the two observed UT falcons are a mated pair, although a leg band, seen on at least one of the birds, could help answer the question. Migrating peregrines often end up nesting long distances from where they hatched.
Several people have had the chance for a much closer look at the birds. Bob Curlis works for TSC Building Restoration; he and other crew members have been doing tuck-pointing and other work on University Hall Tower, where the birds have been spotted most frequently. “We saw the two of them doing what looked like a dogfight, about 20 feet off the ground,” he estimated. He added that the peregrine they see most often doesn’t seem bothered by the close presence of humans: “He lets us know we’re on his turf by squawking, or whatever they do, then he settles down.”
At press time, contact was being made with District 2 (based in Findlay) of the Division of Wildlife in the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. According to Julie Shieldcastle of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory in Oak Harbor, “If peregrines are observed exhibiting a preference for a particular site, they’re called ‘interested’ and naturalists may come out to the site and build a small nesting ledge so that if the birds do nest, their eggs won’t roll out and be lost.”
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Falcon facts
• Peregrines were the hunting falcons of choice for European royalty in the Middle Ages.
• Always somewhat rare in North America, peregrine populations began declining in the 1950s; research points to DDT as the likely reason.
• The Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration Project was initiated in an effort to restore the peregrine to the Midwest. Coordination and administration of the project is provided by the Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota and Bell Museum of Natural History. Ohio is a cooperating state and received peregrines for release through this project. Since then, more than 600 young falcons have been released in the Midwest and eastern U.S. through a technique known as “hacking.”
• Birds are monogamous and mate for life. As with many raptors (birds of prey), the female is significantly larger than the male.
• The male courts the female for about one month, using aerial displays. Females lay three or four eggs. Both the male and female incubate the eggs for about one month.
• Peregrines kill their prey (pigeons, doves and shore birds are preferred) by swooping down on them at speeds that may reach 200 miles an hour, making them one of the planet’s fastest creatures. They make the kill by balling up their oversized feet at the end of a dive and literally clubbing their prey out of the air. It's thought that the blow kills the prey instantly; ideally the peregrine then swoops down and catches the prey before it hits the ground.
• Banding returns and tracking of radio-collared peregrines have shown that some of them fly from their nesting grounds on the Arctic tundra all the way to South America for the winter, but in North American cities where pigeons are abundant all year, many of the hacked peregrines and their offspring have become permanent residents.
— Courtesy of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife and Dr. Elliot Tramer, UT professor of biology, associate chair of the Department of Environmental Sciences, and director of Environmental Studies/Sciences
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