Bridge tie-up is for the birds
State team bands baby peregrines nesting under span

by Karen Keefe Grand Island Dispatch, June 22, 2007 A quartet of peregrine falcon chicks literally stopped traffic for two hours Tuesday morning on the northbound North Grand Island Bridge. The birds were the focus of a successful state effort to band, identify and bolster their chances of leading long, healthy lives in their home underneath the north bridge span. Workers couldn’t get to the chicks without causing a traffic jam, so they planned for the tie-up and warned the public to find alternate routes or prepare to wait. The rarity of these endangered birds made the banding project special and important to both state Department of Environmental Conservation experts and the Thruway officials who own the bridge the birds call home. Construction cones and a convoy of state trucks provided a barricade as staffers worked quickly to capture, band and return the fluffy chicks to their nest without ruffling too many feathers. Planned Parenthood DEC regional wildlife manager Mark Kandel and Thruway staffer Chris Hulse climbed into the bucket of a cherry-picker and went over the east side of the north span. They descended to the nesting site, a box the Thruway Authority had actually placed on the understructure of the bridge about eight years ago hoping to attract a nesting pair of peregrines.

Mark Kandel of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Chris Hulse of the Thruway Authority take a plunge to find and band baby peregrine falcons on Tuesday at the North Grand Island Bridge.

The crew was expecting two chicks, but found four – three males and one female. The baby birds were chirping and shedding their fuzzy down. Meanwhile, the concerned adult birds were highly active – swooping through wide arcs in the sky as their offspring were being handled by strangers.

The humans were keyed up, too. DEC biologist Connie Adams rushed to the bucket of birds and carried a knapsack away from the railing. “I’ve got a bird in here!” she said as she walked quickly to the truck tailgate where the banding would take place. “I’m excited as all get-out,” Kandel said as he was back on pavement and pacing. “That is very cool,” one biologist said.

The project was “real successful,” Kandel said. The birds were “between 2-and-one-half to three weeks old, which is ideal age for banding – and all the chicks look healthy.”

He said that when he returned the babies to the nesting box, they settled down. “They’re getting their activity back again; they’re chirping. They’re sitting there right now with a dumb look on their face wondering what happened to them. But within 20 minutes, to an hour, they’ll be back to their normal activity. They’re exhausted, just from the stress, right now. But they’re fine.”

The adult peregrines handled things OK, too, Kandel said. “Oh, the parents were alarmed, but they’re really not as aggressive as a lot of other peregrine that I’ve seen where we visited the box.”

Adams explained that each bird gets two bands: one is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service band with eight or nine numbers engraved into silver; the other is a New York state one, a brighter, readable band that can be seen with a birder’s spotting scope or binoculars.

She said the DEC crew checked the overall condition of the birds. One indication of good health is the color inside their mouths; another, how many mites are on them. The mites were few, and the color was good. The babies were “in very good condition,” Adams said. “We’re very lucky.”

What brought the birds to the bridge in the first place is that falcons like to nest high, and they hunt by swooping or dropping on prey, Kandel said. Bridges provide privacy and pigeons – a perfect food supply for the falcons. “Underneath, it’s a different world. They like it secluded.”

The chicks and their parents are one of three known peregrine falcon families nesting in Western New York. Another family has lodged at the Statler Building in Buffalo since 1996; the third set has claimed a site in the Niagara Gorge for about five years. The Grand Island bridge, midway between those sites, seemed ideal to the state Thruway and DEC folks. Once the birds settle in, they tend to nest year after year in the same spot, said Thruway official Tom Moore, who was coordinating Tuesday’s delicate project.

Moore said when the adult parents were seen flying around the bridge, it was assumed they were an active breeding pair. The chicks were first seen by Thruway maintenance workers on a routine check. A photo was taken and shown to DEC personnel. That’s when the plan for banding and checking them was hatched. The bridge workers now have to time their maintenance with the DEC to provide cooperation in maintaining the nest, Moore said.

In addition to banding the birds within that tight time frame, workers were also making a quick upgrade to the nesting box, attaching big wooden perch poles to the nesting site with hose clamps to help the young birds flex their legs and get ready for first flight. Within an hour, the men were over the side of the railing again, returning the young birds to their watchful parents. Team members on the project expressed hope that their work will help the chances of the nest being successful for successive generations.

Peregrine falcons generally live about 20 years. “They usually migrate to Central America, and the banding helps us when these birds return to breed,” Adams said, although she added that the Statler falcons don’t migrate. Those that do traditionally come back in February, start setting up their territory and, in March, begin defending their box. The chicks are usually born in late March to April. First-time nesters are usually later, as the Grand Island pair were, with their four chicks born in May.

A pair of falcons may use a nest for five or six years, but a nesting site may be in use for much longer. One site in England has been in use by peregrines for about 100 years.

For Moore of the Thruway, the checking and banding of the peregrines was not just a job. “It’s a mission – it’s everybody’s mission that works with the Thruway Authority,” he said after the successful return of the chicks to the nest. “This is a good example of environmental stewardship: the erecting of the nesting boxes in strategic locations. To promote species like this, endangered species, for their survival and propagation, that is the Thruway Authority’s commitment to the environment.”

Moore said the DEC and Thruway worked as partners, doing everything possible not only to ensure the survival of the chicks, but also to continue the propagation of the species. “Now they can band these birds and observe them to determine whether or not, as they’re reared and they fly from this nest, they will be successful.” He said it’s a goal to get falcons and other threatened species off the endangered lists. “We’re glad to be a part of it.”

Kandel said everything went very smoothly. “I really appreciate the cooperation of the Thruway Authority.

Tom Moore of the Thruway Authority and Mark Kandel of the DEC work on banding the chicks.		The fuzzy peregrine falcons are carried in a bucket during the banding procedure. (photos by Joe Eberle)