PEREGRINE FALCONS

Photo courtesy: Telegraph Herald

PEREGRINE FALCONS. Historically peregrine falcons nested in the bluffs along the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Along with other birds of prey, the falcon populations plummeted before the pesticide DDT was banned in the early 1970s. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated that historically 3,875 falcon nesting pairs lived in North America. By 1975, that number had dropped to 324. (1) In 1998 and 1999, Bob Anderson, director of the Raptor Resource Project, raised falcon chicks in simulated bluff surroundings and then released them from bluffs at Effigy Mounds National Monument. One of his unique nesting locations was at an Alliant Energy power plant in Lansing, Iowa. The success that year in finding a pair of falcons had successfully raised their young in the nesting box brought him to Dubuque. (2)

Dubuque had already played a role in the reintroduction of falcons. During the summer of 1999, twenty pairs of falcons were released from the bluffs at EAGLE POINT PARK. In November, 2000 Anderson delivered a nest box to Pat Hartley, manager of Alliant Energy's Dubuque power plant. The box had been removed from the power plant in Lansing, Iowa where it had been placed in 1999. In its first year, the box proved a success for a pair of peregrine falcons. They returned to the area in 2000, but chose to nest on a cliff near the plant.

Anderson started the nesting program in 1988 at a Northern States Power plant. In 2000 he reported that every power plant from the headwaters of the MISSISSIPPI RIVER near Grant Rapids, Minnesota to Cassville, Wisconsin had falcons. The falcon/power plant program accounted for one-third of all wild falcons produced in the central United States annually. (3)

By 2003 releases showed mixed results using nest boxes and 'hack sites' ranging from wild areas to downtown buildings. Pairs in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines had been raising young in prepared sites for up to ten years. Despite the setbacks, other power companies including Dairyland Power Cooperative and Excel Energy joined in the program. Gradually many of the birds moved from the prepared sites to their traditional homes in the bluffs. (4)

In 2019 a nesting pair of peregrine falcons returned to their roost at the top of the DUBUQUE COUNTY COURTHOUSE where a structure had been placed by the Dubuque County Conservation department. A pair of birds had used the "nest" since 2016. As soon as eggs were laid, county officials planned to livestream the events in the nest for residents to watch. (5)

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Source:

1. Goldstein, Bennet, "Nesting Falcons Draw Attention at Courthouse," Telegraph Herald, May 4, 2017 p. 1A

2. "Peregrine Falcons Nest on Bluffs," Telegraph Herald, May 4, 2000, p. 12

3. Reber, Craig, "Peregrine Falcons Are On a Power Trip," Telegraph Herald, November 16, 2000, p. 3

4. "Peregrine Project Paying Off," Telegraph Herald, June 30, 2002, p. 43

5. "Falcons Return to Courthouse Home," Telegraph Herald, March 16, 2019, p. 19