[Bristol-Birds] Breaks Park Peregrine Falcon nest appears eminent
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2012 00:22:07 -0400
This may be the year when
Jeff Cooper, Sergio Harding
and the Virginia Department
of Game and Inland Fisheries
add the Breaks Interstate
Park to the mountain cliff face
sites for Peregrine Falcon nests
in the Old Dominion.
Mike Sanders of Bristol made
this digiscope photo of the
suspected cliff site where you
can see the extensive streak
of whitewash from the droppings
of the young. They may well be
ready to fledge and the final and unofficial confirmation that young were
reached and banded is upon us. This would then be the first known nesting
of Peregrines at Breaks Interstate Park in the five years since birds were
first brought there from coastal areas of the state and eventually released
into
the wild from a hack box on the north end of Pine Mountain in Dickenson County.
The 19 Peregrine chicks hacked from the site are among 200 Virginia has
released since they began to concentrate on mountain population restoration.
VDGIF is monitoring this cliff site along with Big House Mountain in Rockbridge
County
where, on 15 June of last year, they found and banded Virginia's first known
nesting of
wild Peregrines on mountain cliffs. That was a new known breeding pair.
Two other cliff face sites with
adults on territories
have been monitored
by the National Park Service
with one of those being
the famous White Rocks
of Lee County in the far
southwest corner of the
state. It is being checked
by the staff of Cumberland
Gap National Historic Park.
The goals of the hacking
program are to repopulate
the historic breeding range
in the southern Appalachians,
provide a safe fledging
environment, and reduce the
impact of nesting peregrines
on sensitive species along
the coast.
The young Peregrine shown
at the left was banded and
photographed by Jeff Cooper
last June at Big House Mnt.
in Rockbridge County. There
were two known falcon chicks
banded there. One of the
parents was an adult confirmed
to have originated at a Virginia
nest site. Of the three other known cliff face sites with adults on
territories, biologists were
never able to determine if any of the sites actually had eggs or young. No
clear evidence
was established to indicate that nesting took place. One of those is a hacking
site at 4,000
feet in the Shenandoah National Park along the border of Madison and Page
counties.
For two months, VDGIF biologists have been aware and monitoring the Breaks Park
site. While no official word has been released by the agency, it is widely
known the
biologists have found what is believed to be an active nest. There are many
other key
observations which point to nesting activity.
The nest site is on a very tall cliff face above River Trail down near the
railroad and
Russell Fork River. The ledge with white droppings is about one third of the
way
down what is maybe a 500 to 600 foot high cliff. It offers a stiff challenge
to
climbers who would go down on ropes to the nest.
A joint effort has was made by the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and
the
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to try to locate the birds in
the park.
A promising pair of Peregrines is in the park and the initial search was
centered near
the State Line Overlook. Biologists found the possible nest site during their
early
search.
The park provides excellent cliff habitat for peregrines, and is thought to be
the last
known peregrine nesting location in Virginia prior to the serious decline of
the Peregrine
throughout its North American range due to DDT.
Successful discovery of nest sites on the mountain cliffs of Virginia is just
one among
many successes that must be experienced by Peregrines before the population can
sustain
itself in these mountains. This is only the cheering and shouting part we are
experiencing
now. The rest of the success, when it finally takes root, will be much less in
the public
eye and a quieter and more secluded experience.
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
Other related posts: