Peregrines in Massachusetts
Tom French has supplied the following explanation of the movement of Peregrine chicks in the summer of 2015:
------------------------------------------------------------- A recent post questioned why the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) moved Peregrine Falcon chicks from the Custom House in Boston to the Bancroft Building in Worcester, and then moved the original Worcester chicks to Brockton. The short answer is that it was done to ensure that all of these chicks successfully fledged. Over the years, the restoration of Peregrines has required interventions from the very beginning. The whole population was established from captive-born birds released at artificial nest sites. In Massachusetts, our very first new project that was initiated when our Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program was first established in 1984 was the restoration of Peregrine Falcons. Since then, most of our adult nesting pairs have chosen to nest on artificial structures, especially buildings and bridges. It became clear very early on that if these pairs were going to be successful in the long-run, they needed to be viewed by building owners/managers, and by the MA Department of Transportation and their contractors who maintain the bridges, as assets and not liabilities that could stop maintenance, repairs and other projects. This has usually worked out very well, and most people who work on or in these structures are very proud of and protective of their falcons. This is particularly gratifying since most of these people are not generally bird or wildlife enthusiasts. However, they get very attached to their falcons. Unfortunately this is not always the case. With the change of building management, we have been required to remove three successful nest boxes we had installed, including the one on the Fallon Health building in downtown Worcester that had been so successful from 2006 through 2010. In order for the falcons to be safe, we have worked hard to allow the necessary maintenance and repairs on these structures to continue. For activities like window washing, several buildings have written schedules into their contracts to avoid the egg and chick season, and one major skyscraper even has a special contract clause in one of their primary tenant?s lease agreement to help reduce disturbance of the nest. Coordinating all of these activities can be complicated, but it usually works very smoothly. This year the Custom House has had to undertake a half-year project to waterproof the outer skin of the whole upper tower. This is a very old historic building and water leakage has to be stopped. Mass Wildlife met with the building management and contractors well in advance of the nesting season to work out the least risky schedule. The project has to be done in reasonably good weather and is going to take too long to avoid the nesting season. We could have just closed off the nest box and forced the pair to nest somewhere else, just as we did in 1996 to allow for the two years of renovation by Marriott. During those two years the pair moved to the McCormack Post Office and Court House Building in Post Office Square where they continued to successfully raise chicks. However, this time we wanted the adults to stay attached to their traditional nest site at the Custom House. The project requires that the entire tower from the 20th floor balconies, up over the top of the 31 story spire, be surrounded by scaffolding and covered in netting. If you drive through Boston, you can see this now. The original schedule would have covered the entrance of the nest box before the eggs hatched, but we were able to work with the contractors to change their starting point so that the chicks would be at least three weeks old before the scaffolding reached the nest box. Then, we had two options. One was to place another nest box lower on the building, or foster the chicks to another pair. When the 4 chicks were four weeks old we banded them and put them in a new nest box on the nearest available site, which was a 17th floor ledge. Unfortunately, the location had to be on the west side of the building and not on the ocean-facing east side where the traditional nest box entrance is located. While we have had falcon parents readily move 400 feet from a dangerous location in the structure of the Braga Bridge in Fall River to a nest box on multiple occasions, this move did not work. The parents did not find the chicks in their new location and the chicks could not go back to their original nest box. So, we needed to foster them to another pair. For successful fostering, the foster parents need to end up with no more than about five chicks, and preferably four, of similar age. We had a full clutch of four chicks and no other clutch of chicks of similar age. Worcester was a good match. We already wanted to move the chicks off the 10th floor ledge of the Bancroft Building since the risk of mortality from falling is fairly high on ledges of this type. At sites like this, we generally move the chicks from the ledge to the roof when we band them at 3 to 4 weeks old. The roof provides much more space for exercising in preparation for their first flight. Otherwise, their first flight is often to the street. Interestingly, this pair nested in the nest tray that we had installed on the Bancroft Building ledge 17 years ago. It had never been used until this year. From previous experiences, we know that raptors in general do not appear to be affected if the age or number of chicks in their nest is changed. So, switching from 2 chicks on the ledge to 4 chicks on the roof was a smooth transition. Since we were scheduled to band the single chick in the nest box on the Verizon tower in downtown Brockton the following day, it was simple to add two more chicks of similar age. Although this may seem like musical chairs, the result was that all of the chicks have an excellent chance of fledging successfully, the Custom House will have the essential repairs completed before next nesting season, and the aging nest box will be rebuilt or refurbished as part of the project. Marriott has always been very devoted to their nesting pair. This was the first modern nest site in Massachusetts, and has produced many offspring that have gone on to produced many young of their own. This nest box is designed like a Barn Owl box so that the parents enter the top-most window on the ocean side and enter a very large box that is sitting completely inside the building. As a result of the near complete protection from bad weather, this nest site has probably been more successful than any other in the entire eastern U.S. For its guests, Marriott has provided an in-house nest camera, a very informative educational display on the history of the Custom House Peregrines, and an annual falcon lecture/program. This is exactly the type of ownership between building owners/manager and their nesting falcons that we want to foster. This year, the number of Peregrine falcon nesting pairs will again be an all-time high of about 30 pairs. And the most successful will be on buildings and bridges. So far, we have actually banded 36 chicks and two more nest sites are scheduled. Tom French(forwarded by Scott Ricker)