The peregrine falcons nesting on the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg saw their first two eggs (of three) hatch on Saturday, April 27. 

You can watch them live online as they quickly grow and fledge.

Establishing the nest began in 1996, when a male peregrine was seen in Harrisburg. Officials from the Game Commission scouted downtown locations for a suitable site to place a nest tray to see if it would attract a pair of peregrine falcons. 

The Rachel Carson State Office building was selected since it had a covered ledge 15 stories above the ground.  Read more here.

Visit DEP’s Falcon Cam webpage to learn more.

Rachel Carson Connection

Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, a small town north of Pittsburgh.

As an adult, Carson worked for the government as a scientist and writer and is often credited with starting the modern environmental movement.  Read more here.

Carson studied the role of poisons in the environment. Her book, "Silent Spring", published in 1962, addressed the dangers posed by DDT.

The evidence was undisputedly conclusive that DDT interfered with calcium metabolism in birds at the top of the food chain.

With no mechanism to excrete or breakdown DDT, birds at the top of the food chain accumulated DDT as they ate smaller birds, which, in turn, ate insects exposed to DDT. This is called bioaccumulation.

The interference with calcium metabolism caused thinning eggshells that broke easily.

Peregrine falcons, bald eagles and ospreys that are making an impressive comeback thanks to the environmental ethics and foreword thinking of people like Rachel Carson.

It is a happy irony, indeed, that these peregrine falcons chose to reside on the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, which was named in her honor.

Personal Connection

The DEP/DCNR headquarters building was named after Rachel Carson in 1995, in part because of the personal connection DEP Secretary James Seif had to her.

Seif’s mother went to Chatham University in Pittsburgh with Rachel Carson and they kept in touch over the years.

Linda Lear’s book-- Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature-- mentions the relationship of two professional women (a rarity at the time) from Pittsburgh who were classmates at the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) and shared a mutual interest in biology-- Rachel Carson and Dorothy Thompson Seif, Jim Seif’s mother. 

The women worked, corresponded and visited together until Rachel Carson died in 1964.

In a 1987 interview in the Los Angeles Times, Dorothy Thompson Seif said of Rachel Carson, "The thing that's so remarkable about her is that she was ordinary.

"I remember we were working late one night in the laboratory, and she stopped and looked through the darkened window. She said, 'I've always wanted to write, but I haven't much imagination. Biology has given me something to write about. I'd like someday to make the animals and plants and woods as interesting to others as they are to me.’”

Dorothy Thompson Seif collected the letters between them in an unpublished, "Letters from Rachel Carson: A Young Scientist Sets Her Course.”

To learn more about Rachel Carson, visit the Rachel Carson Homestead website.

Click Here to watch a PA Conservation Heritage/WITF documentary on Rachel Carson.

Visit the PA Conservation Heritage website to learn more about Pennsylvania’s environmental heritage.

Resource Links:

-- Post-Gazette - Mary Ann Thomas: Peregrine Falcon Population Likely Growing Statewide

-- Op-Ed: In Praise Of Rachel Carson And Public Service; Happy Birthday Rachel Carson! - By James M. Seif, Former Secretary of DEP  [PaEN]

-- Rachel Carson On Leadership: The Human Race is Challenged More Than Ever Before To Demonstrate Our Mastery, Not Over Nature, But Of Ourselves  [PaEN]

-- Trail Mix Blog: Rachel Carson, A Pennsylvanian Sparked An Awakening [PaEN]

-- DEP Celebrates 60 Years Of Scientist, Writer, Pennsylvania Native Rachel Carson’s Literary Work 'Silent Spring' [PaEN]

-- Feature - What We Owe To Pennsylvania’s Rachel Carson   [PaEN]

-- Guest Essay: When People Have To Choose Health Or Jobs, Everyone Loses - The View From Rachel Carson’s Homestead In Allegheny County [PaEN]

-- Bay Journal: Rachel Carson No Stranger To The Chesapeake Bay, Its Creatures   [PaEN]

[Posted: April 28, 2024]

4/29/2024