Spring is in the air and the two Peregrine falcons nesting on the ledge of the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg will again provide an intimate look at how the recovering species raises a family through online video. Their first egg should arrive around March 25.

A pair of nesting falcons can also be seen on the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

The Department of Environmental Protection and the Game Commission will hold a special Peregrine Falcon Educator’s Workshop on April 3 in Harrisburg.

A pair of falcons has nested on the Rachel Carson Building since 1998 when the first photos and online video fascinated the world, attracting over 35 million page views in the early days of their nesting.

“The response we receive from this Webcast is phenomenal every year,” said DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty. “Last year, the falcon page was viewed more than 3 million times. It’s amazing to see and read the comments visitors from around the world have left. We’ve received questions and feedback from viewers in America, Canada, Europe, New Zealand—basically, from every corner of the planet. And the interest is coming from adults and classrooms where teachers and students are following the progress of these falcons and learning about the ways they can protect their habitats.

“By seeing the falcons’ progress up close, we can appreciate how our actions have a very real and direct impact on the wildlife and environment around us.”

In each of the past two years, the female falcon has laid a “clutch” of five eggs. The eggs should begin to hatch around Mother’s Day, May 11, and the young falcons, or “fledglings,” will begin to take their first flights around Father’s Day, June 15.

The current female has laid eggs here since 2000 with two different males, the second having been introduced in 2005 after the original male was discovered injured the previous year.

Pennsylvania’s Peregrine falcon population has increased since the early 1990s as a direct result of reintroduction efforts such as the one at the Rachel Carson State Office Building. There are more than a dozen pairs of Peregrine falcons nesting at locations across the state.

While their numbers are improving, Peregrine falcons remain an endangered species in Pennsylvania. In the early 1900s, there were about 350 pairs of nesting Peregrines in the state.

So far, the nest at the Rachel Carson State Office Building has produced 34 eggs. Of those, 32 hatched producing 16 males and 15 females (the sex of one nestling hatched in 2006, the runt of the clutch, could not be determined). Of these, 19 falcons survived—10 males and nine females.

For more information, visit DEP’s Falcon webpage and sign up for special FalconWire updates via email and the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh.

Link: Game Commission Peregrine Falcon webpage

3/21/2008