ArrayMay 14, 2020 at 12:15 pm
By Wildlife Promotional Coordinator Lauren McPherson
Recently, I had the opportunity to join one of my colleagues at the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) in the field to do some monitoring of a peregrine falcon nesting site, as part of the Department’s ongoing statewide breeding monitoring program.
As we entered our third hour of listening to trucks roaring below us, scanning thousands of feet of a cliffs edge for an endangered species that was once extirpated from the Northeast, I begin to think we were going home with no data to contribute to the survey. I was eager to observe a bird that is known for its speed, reaching over 200 mph when dropping in on its prey. Suddenly and seemingly from out of no-where, an adult male peregrine falcon soared in from the west and dropped prey mid-air as his mate, the female, swooped in and caught it mid-flight a few feet below.
Breeding populations of peregrines in the continental U.S. were first listed as Endangered under federal law in 1970, and while widespread improvements followed decades of intensive recovery programs and a federal delisting in 1999, Maine’s resident breeding populations remain Endangered under Maine’s Endangered Species Act.
After the extirpation in 1962, MDIFW’s Endangered and Threatened Species Specialist, Charlie Todd along with other state biologists, began utilizing captive peregrine breeding programs, and from 1984 to 1997, Maine reintroduced a total of 153 young peregrines. Today, Maine’s peregrine falcon population consists of a known 38 pairs, with 23 breeding pairs documented. Though this slow and steady trend is progress, biologists will continue to monitor this species in hopes they become more self-sustaining and frequent surveying will improve our knowledge base to help inform population management decisions such as potential species down listing.
As we watched the female abruptly return to her nest with her prey, we were lucky she gave away her nesting sight, about 100 feet high on a small cliffs edge, hidden slightly by grass. She settled back onto her nest, a continuous commitment until her young hatch. MDIFW’s Raptor Specialist, Erynn Call, coordinates the continuing statewide breeding monitoring program and works directly with volunteers, staff, and active industry/businesses successfully working in close proximity to an endangered species. Crooker Construction, Rockland Cement, and CMP are just a few of the industrial or business organizations that participate in and provide invaluable information about some of our state’s nesting peregrines.
You can learn more about the recovery work of peregrine falcons in Maine by checking out this video of a visit to a nesting site with Endangered Species Coordinator Charlie Todd from a few seasons ago!