Bridge Falcons Given Leg Bands

Seven new peregrine falcon chicks have nested in the Upper Peninsula, three at the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie and four at the Portage Lake Lift Bridge.

At the Portage Lake Lift Bridge, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) installed two nest boxes in 2012 – one each on the north and south bridge towers. A pair of falcons discovered the nesting site the next spring and has raised a total of 10 chicks there.

MDOT took precautions to shield the lift bridge nesting boxes from construction work – an $8.4 million upgrade and preventive maintenance project started in late 2014 and just wrapped up this spring. Screens were placed to keep the falcons from seeing workers in the bridge machinery rooms and efforts were made to minimize disturbances in the nest area.

MDOT’s Dan Weingarten says peregrines are endangered in Michigan, so the state DNR is trying to keep track of them.  Weingarten says the chicks have names. At the Portage Lift Bridge the chicks have been named Lynn, Spunky, Edgar and Scottie.

Recently DNR officials have banded the birds for study.  According to DNR wildlife biologist Kristie Sitar, color-coded bands attached to the legs of young birds allow scientists to track the movements, reproductive behavior and population growth of the falcons. DNR biologists have yet to confirm that birds banded at either bridge have gone on to breed elsewhere, but that’s not unusual.

You are able to see the falcons before they leave the nest on the lift bridge, the webcam address is: http://pasty.com/nestbox.html.