[va-bird] Peregrine nest at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, Alexandria

Va-Birders,

I'm sorry to report the failure of the Peregrine Falcon nesting attempt at the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. The birds' scrape was in an opening under the deck on the north side of the old bridge. Three eggs were laid between March 26-30 and were due to hatch probably by this weekend. The nest was technically in the District of Columbia, but the birds flew over Virginia to hunt. They remain in the area and can be viewed from Jones Point Park in Alexandria when in flight or when perching on the ledge of the bridge or on one of the cranes used in the construction of the new bridge.

Last Thursday, April 27, Stephanie Spears, Environmental Specialist with the WW Bridge Project, was able to observe the scrape during a bridge closing for the passage of a ship. There was no evidence of the eggs or any shells. Stephanie saw only two eggs in the scrape on April 12. It is impossible to know for sure what happened. Perhaps a raccoon was responsible, or the eggs were infertile and the parents gave up on them and tossed them out, or something else happened.

Both birds have a black/green bicolor band with number and letter characters on their left legs. On their right legs is a Fish and Wildlife Service band with a federal number. The band colors and characters identify where the bird was hatched and banded. The black/ green color indicates that the birds were of Eastern United States origin, but they were never close enough to read the characters even with a spotting scope. Fortunately, the high magnification capability of digiscoping made it possible to photograph, crop, and sharpen an image of the leg bands and read the characters. I was able to get a digiscoped photo of the leg band on the female and Paul Kane was able to get one of the male's leg band. These photos were passed on to Shawn Padgett at the Center for Conservation Biology and Craig Koppie at the Fish and Wildlife Service. They were able to check the banding records and identify the origins of these two falcons.

The male was hatched in 2003 in downtown Baltimore, MD at the Legg Mason Building and banded on May 26, 2003. The bands showed a 6 on the black and a D on the green. The federal band # is 816-69307.

The female was hatched in 2004 at the Ben Harrison Bridge in Hopewell, Va and banded on May 21, 2004. Her bands have an 8 on the black and E on the green. The federal band # is 987-51284. She was moved from the bridge as a chick to the mountains for hacking.

This failure has been very disappointing to everyone who has been watching the nesting progress over the last month, but these are still young birds and I would like to think that they will be successful next year and will be able to raise a family.

There is much information on the Center for Conservation Biology's web site. http://www.ccb-wm.org/ Here you can see falcon cams of other nesting Peregines in Virginia and learn about falcon projects in the state. The Peregrine color banding protocol can be found at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/BBL/homepage/pefaprot.htm

Paula Sullivan
Alexandria




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