Baby falcons find home under Blue Water Bridge (Michigan)

[Donna]

At least two peregrine falcon chicks are calling the Blue Water Bridge home this spring, said David McElwee, the bridge's acting maintenance supervisor.

Christine Becher, who tracks peregrine falcons for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said she will check the nest Tuesday to age and count the number of chicks.

The department likely will band the birds within the next week and a half, Becher said.

The bands help identify the birds, allowing biologists to monitor them.

"We know that they're being successful," she said. "That's the aim of the project, to monitor and evaluate how they're doing."

Bridge workers constructed a peregrine falcon nesting box under the westbound span in 2005. Tonga, a female peregrine falcon, has called the bridge home for several years.

Becher said she assumes the chicks are Tonga's, but she won't be certain until Tuesday.

McElwee said bridge maintenance staff enjoys seeing the birds.

"They swoop at us from time to time, but nothing close enough to do any damage," McElwee said. "It can be a lot of fun, in the long run."

Tim Payne, the DNR's southeast Michigan wildlife supervisor, said he didn't believe there were more than 20 peregrine falcons in Michigan.

"It's just one of a small handful of nests throughout the state," Payne said.

He said in the early 1990's the department started monitoring multiple nests in the Detroit area.

Fifty years ago there were no known successful nesting sites for peregrine falcons east of the Mississippi, Payne said.

State and federal groups have been working since the 1970s to bring peregrine falcons back from the brink of extinction.

Perched along the Blue Water Bridge, Tonga, a mother peregrine falcon from Mississauga, Ontario, watches over her nest last summer. Peregrine falcon chicks were born this week under the bridge.