Peregrine Falcon Recovery
INTRODUCTION
Vermont's breeding population of Peregrine Falcons continues to reach new milestones on its long road to recovery. Due to the indiscriminate use of DDT following World War II, the peregrine was extirpated in the Eastern U.S. by the mid- to late 1960s. In 1970 the last observation of a wild adult at a northeastern nesting cliff occurred at Vermont's Mount Pisgah. The Peregrine Fund initiated an intensive captive breeding and release (hacking) program in 1975 and successfully reestablished the peregrine to the eastern United States. In Vermont, 93 young birds were released at 3 hack sites from 1982-87: Mount Horrid, Marshfield Mountain, and White Rocks. In 1984, a territorial falcon pair reoccupied the cliffs of Mount Pisgah and returned the following year to nest successfully. Vermont's breeding population has since increased steadily, paralleling similar trends throughout much of the eastern U. S. The Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department have closely monitored this species' recovery since Mount Pisgah's reoccupancy, and the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) joined the project in 1998. Together with a corps of volunteers, the Vermont Peregrine population is monitored annually.

2006 Breeding Season Results
Vermont's Peregrine Falcon breeding population reached a new post-DDT record high of 34 territories in 2006, surpassing 2005's previous record of 32 pairs. Twenty-eight (82%) of the 34 pairs nested, and 19 pairs (68%) fledged at least 45 young, for an average of 1.32 fledglings per territorial pair. Although the 68% success rate was dramatically lower than the 88% success rate in 2005 and below the overall average of 75%, two new territories were discovered this year in Benson and Swanton. Of 28 nesting attempts, 9 sites failed to produce young, some of which may have been due to adverse weather events during the incubation and early nestling phases. Since the first successful post-DDT nest produced 3 chicks at Mt. Pisgah in 1985, at least 546 chicks have taken flight from Vermont cliffs.

Download the 2006 Breeding Season Report (pdf, 500kb).

Banding
We continue to band nestlings at a subset of Vermont nesting cliffs with the help of volunteer climbers. In 2006, 19 nestlings were banded at a total of 8 sites, and 3 unhatched eggs were collected for thickness testing and contaminant analyses. In addition, feather samples were collected from 6 nestlings for analysis of metal contaminants as required by the federal post-delisting monitoring plan. Since 1991, 228 nestlings have been banded in Vermont, and, to date, 51 (22%) of these banded birds have been recovered, some as far away as Nicaragua and the Florida Keys. During 2006, 3 Vermont-banded falcons were recovered, including an immature female banded in 2005 at Hawk Rock in Newark, VT that was found dead on Route 30 in Whiting, VT, and a male banded in 2004 at Nichols Ledge in Woodbury that was found injured in Bethel, VT. Another immature falcon banded in 2005 at Deer Leap in Bristol, VT was observed perched in a tree in Addison, VT in January 2006.

In the spring of 2005, the Peregrine Falcon was officially removed from the Vermont List of Threatened and Endangered Species. A post-delisting monitoring and management plan has been drafted that outlines future monitoring efforts. This plan develops a strategy that includes future monitoring and management needs of each occupied nest site and outlines plans to continue to incorporate volunteers and landowners into our monitoring and site protection work.

Since Peregrine Falcons were removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been mandated to implement a post-delisting monitoring plan. That plan, designed to monitor changes in occupied territories and nesting success in 6 regions across the U.S., was initiated in 2003. The federal monitoring plan will utilize data from 11 randomly selected sites in Vermont every three years until 2015. We are required to report the occupancy, nest success, and productivity of these sites to the USFWS, and we will continue to band young, collect eggs, and take feather samples for contaminant testing as funding allows. Although VINS and the National Wildlife Federation expect to continue to monitor and protect Vermont peregrines in 2007, we may be changing the focus of our efforts to accommodate reduced funding. The next year we will report to the USFWS for the post-delisting plan is 2009. Assuming the population continues to sustain itself during this time period, we are likely experiencing the final chapter in this remarkable success story.

For more information, contact:
info@vinsweb.org