Five peregrine chicks fledge at Prairie Island nuclear plant

[AlisonL]

Five peregrine falcon fledglings take flight from Prairie Island nuclear plant



Peregrine falcon hatchlings typically reach the size of their parents during adolescence, but they are easily distinguished from their elders while flying. Fledglings usually display rapid, erratic flapping in flight compared to the smooth, soaring movements the peregrine, the world’s’ fastest bird, is known for.

“It’s like if you had a 12-year-old kid and give them keys to the fastest sports car there is and say, ‘Here, figure it out yourself.’� said Frank Sperlak, senior chemistry technician with Xcel Energy, who is in charge of the peregrine nesting box program at the company’s Prairie Island facility. “And that’s what they’re doing: they’re learning how to fly and hunt, they play tag.�

This year, a quintet of new fledglings can be seen wildly flapping above their home at the Prairie Island nuclear plant. The nesting peregrines at the facility welcomed five hatchlings for the first time, driving the total number of falcons born at the facility to 62.

With a first-year mortality rate of up to 75 percent, the new eyasses’ good health makes this year’s hatch an exceptional success for the program.

DDT

Sperlak has overseen the program for 12 years.

Xcel Energy installed the facility’s first nesting box in 1994 in partnership with the Raptor Resource Project out of Iowa in response to low numbers of peregrine falcons. The population had declined as a result of DDT, an insecticide banned in 1972 and linked to thin eggshells, which made it impossible for peregrine mothers to incubate their eggs.

By 1997, peregrines were spotted again at the facility. The Prairie Island facility was one of several Xcel sites to install the nest boxes, including the King power plant site. The company’s plants have served as the birthplace for more than 1,000 falcons since the nest box installation started.

With their tall structures, power plants often attract peregrines, who prefer to build their nests atop high points. Sperlak, along with a team of Xcel employees and staff from the Raptor Research Project, climbed up the latter on one of the facility’s towering power plant stacks earlier this year to band the hatchlings for tracking.

Though the falcons retained their fluffy, white feathers at the time, bearing a closer resemblance to clouds than to birds of prey, their sharp talons presented a challenge to volunteers, who banded the hatchlings with ungloved hands to prevent injury to the birds’ blood feathers.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outdoors/wildlife/4076939-5-peregrine-falcon-fledglings-take-flight-prairie-island-nuclear-plant

There are very few nests this year with five chicks. Windsor's Ambassador Bridge is the only other one which comes to mind at the moment.

There are two males and three females at the Prairie Island nest.

The two males are:

Gordy, banded black/red E/91
Ritchie, banded black/red E/92

The three females are:

Lem, banded black/blue 14/P
Artie, banded black/blue 15/P
Mel, banded black/blue 16/P

The parents are unidentified.