New Jersey falcons help species rebound across country

[Donna]

UPPER TOWNSHIP - Two peregrine falcon chicks appeared tame as kittens in their cardboard cat box that served as a temporary home Wednesday.

State biologists plucked the fierce birds of prey - the fastest animals on the planet - from their lofty nest high above commuters on the New Jersey side of the Walt Whitman Bridge.

The state's Nongame and Endangered Species program is shipping them off to West Virginia this month to help repopulate a part of the country that until recently had not seen peregrine falcons in 50 years.

The down-covered chicks will learn to fly at the famed New River Gorge, where they are expected to make themselves at home among rocky cliffs. In the meantime, they are awaiting their departure at state offices in the Lester G. MacNamara Wildlife Management Area in the marshes of Tuckahoe, Cape May County.

Peregrine falcons have bounced back amazingly in New Jersey since they went extinct east of the Mississippi River in the 1960s, said Kathleen Clark, zoologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection.

They are so ubiquitous in southern New Jersey that they can often be seen during the day on water towers in Stone Harbor, Margate and Ocean City.

New Jersey's 24 nesting pairs produced 39 hatchlings last year, including five that went to West Virginia. Nests produced chicks in Margate, Stone Harbor and the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.

Peregrine falcons adapt quickly to city life, too. Falcons that have made nests for years at the Atlantic City Hilton Casino Resort raised three chicks last year.

And bridges spanning the Delaware River are among the most popular roosts for the birds. Besides the Walt Whitman, the birds nest on the Ben Franklin, Tacony-Palmyra and Betsy Ross bridges.

"Bridge managers like to have them there. They try to accommodate them because they thin out the pigeon population," Clark said.

State biologists on Wednesday left one hatchling on the bridge. Its two siblings likely faced long odds on reaching adulthood because of the first flights they have to make over the river and busy bridge traffic.

The first leap of faith usually happens around the Fourth of July, when traffic is at its busiest, she said, adding that the birds will have greater odds in the more forgiving terrain of West Virginia, Clark said.

"Survival on bridges is not as great as other nesting locations. And the parents will be able to devote more attention to the single chick," she said.

The falcons feed on smaller birds they catch midair while diving at speeds of 200 mph, said Peter Jenny, president and CEO of the Peregrine Fund, a nonprofit group created by Cornell University in 1970.

"There are some birds that rival it for speed. But the peregrine holds the record," he said.

The nonprofit group worked to restore falcons nationwide after their populations crashed in the 1960s.

The chemical pesticide DDT got into the food chain and caused widespread problems among eagles, ospreys and other birds of prey. Despite being banned more than 30 years ago, the chemicals still present a breeding challenge for New Jersey's coastal birds.

Tests on five coastal falcon eggs that never hatched last year showed high levels of DDT and other toxins called polychlorinated biphenyls, manmade chemicals that were banned in 1979.

Coastal peregrines consume more toxins than their landlocked Midwestern cousins because the chemicals persist longer in marine environments. Peregrines eat shorebirds that eat crustaceans that eat more of the toxic micro-organisms, Jenny said.

Peregrines that nest near the Channel Islands in California also have higher levels of DDT in their systems, he said.

Falcons today are no longer federally endangered but they retain their protected status in New Jersey.

While the pigeons may disagree, Jenny said city falcons actually help the local pigeon population by providing natural selection to make the survivors healthier and more robust.

"The balance of nature is such that these guys work very hard to eke out an existence," he said.

The falcons are a national success story. The lessons biologists learned raising falcon chicks and returning them to the wild are helping other endangered birds such as California condors and harpy eagles, Jenny said.

"It demonstrates to a population that's been inundated with doom and gloom over the environment that success can happen," he said. "With endangered species, the door swings both ways. You can put species on that list and sometimes you can take them off."

[MAK]

        

[Bonnie]

Kathy Clark is a very busy lady.  She is the Chris Nadereski of New Jersey.  She is also very, very nice.  She did banding at two locations the day before.