News, Videos & Other Webcams > Birds in the News
News: Peregrines
The Peregrine Chick:
FWS investigating falcon death near unfinished California solar plant
by Scott Streater / Greenwire / 19 Sept 2013
The Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is once again investigating a bird death at a Southern California solar power project, this time involving a peregrine falcon discovered at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in San Bernardino County. USFWS has become increasingly concerned about bird deaths at utility-scale solar plants, including the discovery in May of a dead endangered Yuma clapper rail at another solar project under construction in the nearby Chuckwalla Valley (E&ENews PM, July 11). The service earlier this year began asking project developers to increase avian monitoring activity during project construction, said Jane Hendron, an FWS spokeswoman in Carlsbad, California.
USFWS is currently conducting a broader analysis of solar installations in the West in an effort to determine if they are contributing to bird mortalities and injuries. If so, it could create a new layer of regulatory concerns at a time of unprecedented growth in the industry that is expected to continue after President Obama in June challenged the Interior Department to add 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2020.
"It's all about trying to figure out what are the aspects of these projects that are posing risks to birds, and then, hopefully, we can all put our heads together and try to devise measures that would be successful in reducing those risks," Hendron said. "But that is still something that has to be worked on."
The latest incident involves the discovery of a severely injured peregrine falcon at the nearly completed Ivanpah solar project, which is being developed by Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy, along with investment partners NRG Solar and Google. The $2.2 billion project, which has been under construction since October 2010, will use hundreds of thousands of heliostat mirrors to reflect sunlight on solar receivers atop three 459-foot-tall power towers in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. The peregrine falcon was discovered Sept. 6 by one of the project's on-site biologists, who "promptly delivered it to a licensed wildlife rehabilitator for further evaluation and care," said Jeff Holland, an NRG spokesman, in an email.
Holland said that in accordance with the project's avian monitoring plan, the biologist contacted USFWS, the Bureau of Land Management and the California Energy Commission. "Late yesterday we were informed by the USFWS that the bird had unfortunately expired and that a cause of death has yet to be determined," Holland said in the email.
A necropsy will be performed at USFWS's forensics laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, in an effort to determine the cause of death, Hendron said. Among other things, the service wants to know if the bird collided with the power towers, or whether the bird was burned or blinded while flying between the mirrors and the power towers, referred to as "solar flux."
Read the rest of the story here: http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059987532
(sorry, whole story is too long to post here ...)
The Peregrine Chick:
Peregrine falcons put on a show at Tate Modern
by John Dunne / London Evening Standard / 13 Sept 2013
City dwellers: Houdini on the Tate Modern
A pair of peregrine falcons have ruffled a few feathers in the art world with regular appearances at the Tate Modern. Misty and Houdini nest in the City of London but often spend their days on the roof of the Tate where they have a bird’s eye view of the capital.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds volunteers Evie Prysor-Jones and Celia Leam were offering passers-by a chance to spy the pair using a telescope yesterday. The RSPB regularly sets up the telescopes to monitor the progress of the birds who came to London eight years ago and were the first to return after the capital’s peregrine falcon population disappeared during the Forties. Tim Web, the charity’s London spokesman said: “We regularly offer people the chance to use the telescopes down by the Tate Modern and it has proved very popular.
“The birds eat pigeons and like to spend time on high buildings because they are like cliffs which makes London ideal.” There are now 24 pairs of peregrine falcons across London according to the RSPB.
The Peregrine Chick:
Banner Year For Banding Peregrine Falcon Chicks
15 July 2013 / WBIW News
(UNDATED) - DNR wildlife biologists recently completed banding efforts with a record number of peregrine falcon chicks that were hatched this spring at 15 successful nesting sites across Indiana.
"As a species that is dependent on man-made structures in the lower Midwest, peregrine falcon numbers are at unprecedented levels due to the efforts of many agencies, organizations, companies, and individuals," said John Castrale, nongame bird biologist with the Indiana DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife. "In return, these spectacular birds give wildlife watchers unique viewing opportunities as they hunt and raise their young in urban and industrial areas."
DNR biologists monitor peregrine falcon nesting every year, and most young falcons are banded with leg identification tags to help monitor their movements and survival. The 44 falcon chicks that were banded this year topped the previous high mark of 38 set in 2012. Two additional chicks left their nests this year before biologists could get to them to attach bands.
"Once again, building and plant managers throughout the state were cooperative in allowing access for banding at nest boxes," Castrale said. "Volunteers were invaluable in monitoring nesting, identifying adults, and keeping young falcons out of harm's way." Nesting sites in East Chicago, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Madison, Michigan City and Whiting had the most banded chicks with four each. Three chicks were banded at two sites in Gary and at single nests in Indianapolis, New Albany and Porter County.
Once threatened with extinction in North America, peregrine falcons represent one of the most successful restoration stories in the 40 years of the Endangered Species Act. Their recovery resulted in removal from the federal endangered species list in 1999. A recommendation is pending to remove them from the Indiana list of endangered species. A half century ago, habitat loss and decreased reproduction resulting from use of pesticides, such as DDT, put peregrine falcons in peril of surviving as a species. By 1965, no peregrine falcons nested east of the Mississippi River, and western populations had declined by 90 percent. Efforts to study, breed and restore peregrine populations began in the 1970s. Through these efforts, it was discovered that urban settings are successful nesting areas because the skyscrapers mimic the peregrine's natural cliff-side habitat.
Indiana started its peregrine falcon reintroduction project in 1991, and by 1994 the DNR had released 60 young falcons in Evansville, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and South Bend. The number of nesting pairs in the state has slowly increased. Nests are located on buildings, under bridges, and on smokestacks along the Lake Michigan shoreline, at power plants, and in major urban areas.
The Peregrine Chick:
Births on high
31 Dec 2013 - Fort Wayne News Sentinel
For the first time in three years, peregrine falcons successfully hatched chicks in the nest box on the roof of One Summit Square. Moxie and her mate, Jamie, jumped right into family life, too, hatching four chicks around May 1.
Moxie, a 2-year-old bird from Canton, Ohio, and Jamie, a 3-year-old male from Port Sheldon, Mich., took up residence in Fort Wayne in 2012, but Moxie was too young to lay eggs. Their flock soon had names — male Maverick and females Electra, Skyler and Soara — thanks to a naming contest sponsored by Indiana Michigan Power and won by students at Deer Ridge, Harris, Whispering Meadows and St. Vincent de Paul elementary schools in Fort Wayne.
Both the federal government and state of Indiana listed peregrine falcons as an endangered species decades ago because exposure to pesticides caused a steep drop in their population. Indiana started a peregrine falcon reintroduction program in 1991, and it has been successful. Statewide, a record 44 chicks were checked and banded for identification this year.
Peregrines recovered enough to be taken off the federal endangered species list in 1999. They remained an endangered species in Indiana until the Indiana Department of Natural Resources took them off the list in October.
The Peregrine Chick:
--- Quote from: dupre501 on December 04, 2013, 19:14 ---http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-rain-threatens-baby-peregrine-falcons-1.2450721
An article about Arctic peregrines, and their struggles.
--- End quote ---
Glad you posted this Dupre, meant to find it myself :)
The researchers told me a story a few years ago about one year at Rankin Inlet when they had 24 nests and they banded about 60 chicks. Next year they had 24 nests again and one storm (not unlike the 2008 storm or the storm we had this year when our first Radisson chick died) and only one nest with 3 chicks survived. North or south, cliff ledge or nestbox, it's not easy being a peregrine chick ...
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version