[Bristol-Birds] Peregrine Falcons for Southwest Virginia
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 1 Jun 2007 19:54:11 -0400
More Peregrine Falcons are arriving in Southwest Virginia this week as wildlife
researchers and managers continue to try and restore the species to its
traditional breeding range in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
The latest effort is focused in Dickenson County at the Breaks Interstate State
Park along the Virginia-Kentucky border in one of the most wild and beautiful
places in the east. This is a good site because it is believed that peregrines
need tall and dominant rock cliffs with no vegetation cover and water nearby
such as a river.
As early as 1985 and until 1990 the Virginia Department of Game and Inland
Fisheries made significant efforts to introduce Peregrines in Southwest
Virginia. Now, more than 20 years after the first releases of Peregrine in
Southwest Virginia, we still know very little about the success of this program
and the status of the breeding population. Our best guess is that it has
failed and the best surveys and research indicates there are no breeding birds
in the region. But the effort is not over !
In the last few days, biologists have removed young Peregrines from a nest on
an abandoned junk ship anchored in the James River not far from Newport News.
The Cape Mendocino is one of 40 such junked ships and, is helping to restore
peregrine in Virginia.
A young falcon pair has successfully mated for the second straight year aboard
the Mendocino, in a sheltered little platform just off the cargo ship's
elevator shaft, according to a story published by the Associated Press.
A team of curious scientists descended on the unusual nest Wednesday to check
on the birds and to complete the mission.
Biologists placed each of three baby peregrines into a cardboard carrying case,
Wednesday, then handed the cases to another scientist waiting above the
elevator shaft. Meanwhile, overhead the parents circled and squawked. Without
their parents, the youngsters were driven Wednesday to a new, manmade nest site
at Breaks Interstate Park.
The Breaks Interstate Park area includes a gorge formed by Russell Fork at the
northeastern end of Pine Mountain. The gorge has extensive cliff formations
including a central pinnacle which was a historic nesting site for Peregrine
Falcons. Similar to the New River Gorge this site has extensive wall cliffs on
both sides of the main gorge. These formations have horizontal stratification
and many crevices and overhangs for nesting. The main cliff is part of the
state park with overlooks and trails along the ridge. However, the height and
situation of this cliff suggests that it may accommodate both nesting birds and
human use. This site is isolated from other concentrations of cliffs. Within
the historic mountain range of the Southern Appalachians peregrines may nest on
bridges or buildings, this has never been documented and the population is
expected to require cliff faces for breeding.
The majestic Peregrine Falcons, which are the fastest animals on the planet,
reaching aerial speeds of more than 200 mph, were nearly wiped out east of the
Mississippi River in the 1970s by the lethal insecticide DDT.
They have slowly started to recover -- but not in the mountains of Virginia.
Instead, about 18 falcon pairs can be found in coastal Virginia, including
nests in Norfolk, Suffolk and Richmond and on the lower Eastern Shore.
The birds had never lived on the coast before until scientists artificially
introduced them there, on bridges and atop platforms, as an experiment.
"Turns out they established themselves better on the coast than in the
mountains," said Mitchell Byrd, professor emeritus at the College of William
and Mary, and one of the state's most renowned bird experts.
Byrd guessed that access to ample foodstuffs -- fish, small game and other
birds -- was likely the explanation for the coastal attraction, though "we
still don't fully understand all this. It's an enigma."
Byrd, who has studied birds and taught about them for more than 50 years,
accompanied the scientific team Wednesday. He scaled ladders, jumped between
ships and climbed through holes to reach the ghost fleet nest.
While birding with Mitchell Byrd in Quarry Bog in Shady Valley, TN a few years
ago, he told me of plans to begin introducing peregrines from the coastal
areas of Virginia into the mountains of the western part of the state,
including Southwest Virginia. He felt that since birds released in Southwest
Virginia during earlier efforts were from birds of the Cornell University
program of Tom Cade, there might be some reason to believe that birds which
were already from successful breeding in Virginia might work well in the
mountain. His proposal was to get the birds from the coastal nesting sites and
hack them out here.
Ken Hale of Bristol Tennessee, one of my fellow bird banders in the late 1970's
and early 1980's had been involved in the first release of Peregrine Falcons in
Southwest Virginia while working for the Virginia Game Commission as a
wildlife area manager at Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area near
Saltville. Working with his crews, he used heavy equipment to drag materials
up the mountain and construct the tower where the birds would be "hacked" by
getting them acclimated to their environment and feeding them artificially.
Since Ken is still a birder and subscribed to Bristol Birds Net, I hope he
finds my recollections and accounts accurate.
This hack site was located on the massive management area spanning portions of
Russell, Smyth, Tazewell and Washington counties. Ken's crew erected this tower
just prior to the first and only year of use for this site in 1985. It
overlooked a long, marshy bowl known as Panther Lick, northwest of Saltville.
Eventually 6 birds were released and 3 fledged. Unfortunately, the Clinch
Mountain site was plagued with Great Horned Owl problems, which were believed
to have lead to the premature disappearance of three of the six young falcons.
The owls had been so much of a problem that the site was never used again,
despite the fact it was near an historical nest location.
This site was one of two that began the hacking program in Southwest Virginia.
The other release that year was north of Grayson Highlands State Park on the
Mount Rogers Recreation Area of the Jefferson National Forest. The hack box
was situated on the tallest of three large outcroppings approximately one half
kilometer apart oriented north-south along the crest of a rocky, pastured ridge
known as Wilburn Ridge. All three of these rock outcroppings exceeded 1585
meters in elevation and are located less than 3 km southeast of the summit of
Mt. Rogers (Virginia's highest point at 1609 m.). Rocky pasture, dense
rhododendron thickets, and spruce-fir forest made up the surrounding habitat.
This site was used with good success for the first two years of the mountain
reintroduction effort beginning in 1985.
In 1988 five Peregrines were released at Mount Rogers and four fledged. In
1989 six released and four fledged. The 1990 effort had eight released and
five fledged.
Following the captive release program there have been several attempts to
conduct targeted surveys for breeding peregrines. Among others these include
aerial surveys of Southwestern Virginia (John Baker, unpublished memo) and
other historic sites (Mitchell Byrd, unpublished data) during the early 1990s,
ground monitoring of Shenandoah National Park during the late 1980s and early
1990s (Craig Watson, unpublished reports), and continuing in the late 1990s and
2000s (Gubler, pers. Comm.), aerial surveys of many sites across Western
Virginia in 2003 (Rick Reynolds 2004). A systematic survey of available cliff
sites was needed to address the question of whether there are unknown and good
sites in the region.
Dr. Bryan Watts published An investigation of cliffs and cliff-nesting birds in
the southern Appalachians with an emphasis on the Peregrine Falcon. Center for
Conservation Biology Technical Report Series, College of William and Mary,
Williamsburg, VA. in 2006. Among other findings he revealed about nine
excellent sites in Breaks Interstate Park with about half of them with good to
outstanding access.
Let's keep our fingers crossed that Breaks Interstate Park and this new concept
by Dr. Mitchell Byrd will be just "what the doctor ordered" for Peregrine
restoration in Southwest Virginia.
Let's go birding......
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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