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Nesting Peregrine Falcons Have 3 New Eggs: Camera Watches in Macomb Co.

Posted on: Friday, 9 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Steve Neavling, Detroit Free Press

Jun. 9--Three times is a charm.

Or at least that's what bird-watchers are hoping after a peregrine falcon laid eggs on the Macomb County Building in Mt. Clemens for the third time in two years. The past two yielded no surviving chicks.

The falcon, named Hathor, surprised bird enthusiasts two weeks ago by laying three eggs. She laid four eggs earlier this year, but they never hatched. A state Department of Natural Resources volunteer removed the last of them in mid-May because it was not fertilized.

Horus, the father, is taking turns incubating the new eggs.

"I haven't found anywhere in my research a peregrine re-nesting so soon after a full incubation," Kariann Anderson, a peregrine observer for the DNR, said Thursday.

Since the last nesting was so recent, Anderson said the chance of the eggs hatching is lower than it normally would be.

"I do question whether the eggs are going to be viable or fertile," Anderson said.

If viable, the eggs are due to hatch in two or three weeks.

The falcons became celebrities after county officials installed a webcam above the nest on Cass Avenue and Main Street to watch them.

On one day in April, the peregrine site collected 35,000 hits, said Phil Frame, the county's spokesman. The traffic prompted people to explore other pages on the county's Web site, which recorded 145,000 hits that day, nearly three times the daily average.

"It created a tremendous amount of interest," said Frame. He has watched the falcons defend the eggs against turkey vultures from his office across the street in the Macomb County Administration Building.

Most people with access to the Internet can watch the falcons at www.macombcountymi.gov/peregrine/index.asp. Access is limited when traffic is heavy.

The first appearance of the falcon pair in Mt. Clemens in February 2005 attracted a lot of attention from bird enthusiasts because the species was nearly wiped out by pesticides east of the Mississippi in the mid-1960s.

After a comeback in the 1970s in other states, the DNR introduced the birds to Michigan cities in 1986. The birds have been sighted from the Upper Peninsula to buildings in downtown Detroit.

The falcons' first attempt to lay eggs in Mt. Clemens ended with disappointment after two of the three eggs never hatched. The survivor, named Alexa, swooped into the path of a car and died.

Bird-watchers had high hopes this spring, but the four laid eggs never hatched.

If there are no survivors this time, Anderson said she plans to test the toxicology of the eggs to determine the problem.

"It's possible that we have a pair of peregrine falcons that are reproductively challenged," Anderson said.

Contact STEVE NEAVLING at 586-469-4935 or sneavling@freepress.com.

photo

A male falcon, shown in April, is now helping to incubate the eggs. Four eggs laid earlier this spring failed to hatch. (DAVID P. GILKEY/Detroit Free Press)

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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