FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Rehabbed Breaks peregrine to be released soon !

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A Peregrine Falcon, hacked to the wild at Breaks Interstate Park in Southwest 
Virginia
last year and later found injured in early September at Lanham, MD, is expected 
to be 
released back to the wild in the next couple of weeks.

According to officials working with the effort, the bird was taken to a 
Delaware rehab
center in the first week of September with what was diagnosed as broken ribs 
and 
some possible neurological damage from an apparent window strike.

A falconer in Maryland now has the bird "flying on glove" and successful 
hacking back 
to the wild is anticipated.  The bird's recovery progress is considered very 
good.

The falcon was a young female that was transported to Breaks park from 
Richmond, July 24th, for hacking and released at Breaks on August 7th. Breaks 
is more
than 400 miles from where the falcon was found in Maryland.  It was a bird 
originally 
hatched in Richmond earlier in 2007.

Biologists say post-fledging movement of this magnitude is not atypical, with 
many 
fledging birds wandering over large areas shortly after hacking  

Last fall the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries received a 
report that 
the Breaks peregrine was found on a roof top near the New Carrolton Metro 
Station in 
Lanham, outside of Washington D.C. The bird is believed to have collided with a 
large window. 

Breaks was the site of a successful hacking project during 2007 and more birds
are scheduled to again be hacked there in 2008.  This is a great site and Breaks
could continue to be the release point for many future peregrines.

The state is making a major effort to establish breeding peregrines in 
Southwest Virginia as well as other western mountain areas of the state.  While
officials would be delighted to have breeding birds nest in the wild on the 
towering
cliffs of the Breaks, there are a number of non-traditional high rock faces in 
the
region that may attract nesting pairs.

There have been 24 historical peregrine eyries documented in the Appalachians 
of Virginia.  Mountain nest sites were open rock faces. These nesting areas are 
particularly skewed to the upper portions of Shenandoah National Park and Blue 
Ridge Mountains. Seven locations were clustered in Shenandoah National Park.

The White Rocks at Ewing in Lee County, in the Cumberland Gap National Historic 
Park,
have long been believed to be one of the best possible sites for Peregrines 
Falcons
to nest.  The massive cliff line is a towering south facing structure of the 
park.  It was
here that officials made a photo from an aircraft of extensive whitewash 
beneath 
what some think could have been the site of an active peregrine nest location.

While the future is not only bright for the injured Breaks Peregrine Falcon 
being nursed
back to the wild from a tragic accident,  hopes are high for an established 
western
breeding population.  Who knows ?

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN