2005 NESTING SEASON
Birds to get nest on new bridge
By BEN FIELDS - The Daily Independent
2 June 2005
RUSSELL - It's up to them whether they use it or not, but a pair of peregrine falcons that have nested on the Ironton-Russell Bridge for at least the past five years will have a new nest once the span is destroyed. The 83-year-old bridge has been slated for replacement for some time, and construction of a new span is scheduled to begin next year.
A peregrine born in a Toronto nest and known as Lucy has been nesting with an unidentified mate in a crawl space beneath the bridge's surface since at least 2000, and possibly before. The pair have produced up to four chicks at the nest each year since 2001. However, the span that contains their home will eventually be dismantled - probably sometime after 2008, when the new bridge is expected to be completed.
Dave Scott, who has made a trip to Russell once a year since 2001 to retrieve falcon chicks from the nest and band them for tracking purposes, said he has been working with the Ohio Department of Transportation to make sure the falcons have the option of nesting on the new bridge. Scott, who heads up the Olentangy Research Unit of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said ODOT has kept him up to date on plans for the bridge and construction schedules. "ODOT has been very cooperative," Scott said. "We will provide the birds with a suitable structure for a nest on the new bridge."
ODOT spokeswoman Kathleen Fuller said the transportation department came up with the plan for a new nest while conducting the necessary environmental impact studies to build a new bridge. "We're going to have to have a new habitat for them since we'll be dismantling the old bridge," Fuller said. "The residents will get a new bridge and the birds will get a new nest."
Though peregrine falcons were removed from the list of federally protected species in 1999, the bird is still endangered in Ohio, where there are 22 known nests. There are now more than 2,000 peregrine nests across the country, up from just more than three dozen in 1970. The decline of the species was largely attributed to the harsh pesticide DDT, which was outlawed in 1972. It was believed the chemical caused thinning in falcon egg shells.