Endangered Peregrine Falcons Stand Better Chance in Mountains

In the editorial “Don’t risk success of falcon comeback” (June 17), the editors suggest that the translocation of young peregrine falcons from the ghost fleet to Breaks Interstate Park in the Virginia mountains was an arrogant act on the part of scientists, a poorly considered experiment that may do more harm than good to the falcons, and a practice that could cost Hampton Roads a viable population of falcons, effectively depriving the area of a natural wonder. While the piece may have been written with the best of intentions, the editors were short on insight and long on misperceptions.

It was the arrogant acts of scientists that have allowed for the recovery that we enjoy today. Due to pesticide use, the peregrine falcon east of the Mississippi River was extinct by the mid-1960s. Bold management including the release of 112 captive-reared falcons resulted in the establishment of the first breeding pair in 1981 on Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

It has been the dedication to the recovery of this species for nearly 30 years by Mitchell Byrd (an original member of the federal recovery team) and others that has led to the 22 pairs Virginia now supports.

The movement of young produced by selected pairs in Hampton Roads to the mountains is not some reckless experiment but carefully considered management designed to improve the chances of survival of the young and repopulate the historic breeding range. It began in 2000 only after 10 years of observations showed more than 90 percent of chicks hatched on bridges and other structures over water didn’t survive.

Unlike natural cliff faces that provide ideal updrafts for young peregrines learning to fly, air currents around bridges often cause the birds to end up in the water where they drown, or on the road bed where they are hit by cars. In 1998 all five chicks in a brood produced on the James River Bridge were hit by cars or drowned. The last eight chicks left on the James River Bridge, the Mills Godwin Bridge, the west Norfolk Bridge and the Benjamin Harrison Bridge were all lost.

The nest site on the Cape Mendocino gives chicks a comparably low chance of surviving. The success rate is generally 95 percent for birds translocated, fed and released by biologists. Moving them to the mountains increases their likelihood of survival by a significant margin.

So far, birds have not colonized the mountains of Virginia because we have not been able to mount a large release program, not because the approach is flawed.

North Carolina supports 13 pairs on cliffs, Kentucky 2, Tennessee has at least 3 and Pennsylvania 4. The single pair on Shenandoah’s Stony Man Mountain is the result of the release program.

The male was hatched on the Mills Godwin Bridge and moved to Shenandoah in 2003. This spring a male that was moved from the James River Bridge has been observed along another cliff face, and a female that was moved from the Norris Bridge has been observed in the New River Gorge. Since 2000 when the program was initiated, the population has increased from 15 to 21 breeding pairs.

Breeding adults that have disappeared have been replaced by new individuals within days.

In short, moving the peregrine falcons from the Cape Mendocino and other locations within Hampton Roads is not some poorly considered experiment but a rare win-win.

Bryan D. Watts, director Center for Conservation Biology College of William and Mary Williamsburg

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