In late October, Goose Pond seed collector, Aidan Karlsson, and I were taking the trays of drying seed outside when we saw a large bird with crisply pointed-wings and tight black and white stripes fly over us. Immediately I thought it was a Peregrine Falcon, but I wondered: is it likely to see a Peregrine Falcon at Goose Pond at this time of year?

The scientific name for the Peregrine Falcon, peregrinus, comes from the Latin word for “to travel or to wander”, a fitting name for a bird who can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Their traveling nature would suggest that it wouldn’t be uncommon to see them at Goose Pond.

A Peregrine Falcon was photographed at Goose Pond Sanctuary in 2015 by photographer Arlene Koziol. *Photo by Arlene Koziol*

Yet, If I were at Goose Pond to ask myself this question in the 1960s, the answer would be a resounding no. However, on April 15, 1993, Mark Martin changed the answer to a maybe when he documented the first Peregrine Falcon at Goose Pond in a temporary wetland south of the Prairie Lane residence.

So what happened between the 1960s and 1993 to change the answer from a no to a maybe? Due to habitat loss and low production of young caused by DDT, Peregrine Falcons had been extirpated from Wisconsin’s landscape by the 1960s. The first glimmers of hope for these traveling birds came when Wisconsin outlawed the use of DDT in 1972, and the federal government enacted the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to protect imperiled species such as the Peregrine Falcon and other birds of prey. To learn more about Wisconsin’s role in banning DDT, see Bill Berry’s Banning DDT- How Citizen Activists in Wisconsin Led the Way.

However, if it wasn’t for Greg Septon, founder of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project in 1986, it may have been much longer before peregrines graced the skies surrounding Goose Pond or anywhere else in Wisconsin.

In 1987, Septon began releasing captive-produced peregrines with the first release taking place from atop the First Wisconsin Building in downtown Milwaukee. Subsequent releases were carried out in Racine and Pleasant Prairie with additional releases carried out by the DNR in La Crosse and Madison. During this reintroduction effort from 1987-1992, a total of 103 captive-raised peregrines were introduced. Since 1992, only a year before Mark documented the first Peregrine Falcon at Goose Pond, all peregrine reproduction has occurred naturally in the state. The first successful peregrines nested in nest boxes placed by Septon, and eventually, successful nesting began to occur in cliff habitats like before the population crash. For example, Dan Berger, co-founder of Cedar Grove Ornithological Research Station, banded young at a peregrine eyrie on a cliff at Maiden Rock before DDT, and returned 50 years later to band the young at the same nesting site.

Three young produced at the Pardeeville nesting site in 2021. *Photo by Greg Septon and retrieved from Wisconsin Falcon Watch 2021 Nesting Season Report*

Septon continues to manage nest sites and monitor and study peregrines’ nesting success and movements through the Wisconsin FalconWatch. In 2022, there were 39 successful nesting sites in Wisconsin, which produced a known minimum of 113 young (72 of which were banded using color tags for easier identification) (Septon, Greg. 2022). Through collaboration with other peregrine monitoring projects, researchers can determine how far peregrines have traveled to nest at a particular site. Here in Columbia county, there is one active nesting site in Pardeeville; the pair of peregrines who have inhabited this site for the past 11 years were originally produced in Louisa county, Iowa and in Green Bay, Wisconsin (Septon, Greg. 2022, 2021, 2020). A male produced from the Pardeeville nest in 2019 has been documented nesting in Rockford, Illinois with a female produced in Ontario, Canada for the past two years (Septon, Greg. 2022, 2021). In 2021, another male produced in Pardeeville in 2019 was photographed at Devil’s Lake State Park (Septon, Greg. 2022). Furthermore, a male, “Colby”, produced in Madison in 2017 was photographed at Goose Pond by Al Roske in 2021, which was the first sighting of this male since being banded as a chick! (Septon, Greg. 2021). Read more about Septon’s Wisconsin FalconWatch efforts and check out nesting reports from 1996-2019 here.

Island Girl's migration routes from 2009 to 2013. Source: http://www.frg.org/track_pefa12_all_combined.htm

Our friends at Cedar Grove Ornithological Research Station also help solve the puzzle of this wandering raptor’s movements. In the past three years, Cedar Grove has captured peregrines originally produced in Passage Island in Isle Royale National Park, Manitowoc, and Rothschild (Septon, Greg. 2021, 2020). They once trapped an individual who was originally banded in the high arctic and later found in Argentina. Furthermore, a peregrine banded by Cedar Grove was found dead in the Alps. Cedar Grove had hoped to capture Island Girl, a peregrine fitted with a transmitter who had been known to make her 18,000 mile roundtrip migration at least 9 times! To read more about Island Girl and Cedar Grove’s capturing efforts, check out the past Friday Feathered Feature: Peregrine Falcon. This year banders at Cedar Grove saw 49 Peregrine Falcons in fall migration with the last one seen on October 8th.

The peregrine that Aidan and I saw in late October and the two peregrines that Gisela Zenenka- Drysdale and Beth Phillips reported on eBird at Goose Pond on November 17 were probably birds from the midwest population since the tundra birds moved through earlier according to Cedar Grove Data on the Hawk Count website.

Written by Emma Raasch, Goose Pond Sanctuary seasonal employee

Citations:

Septon, Greg. 2022. Wisconsin Falconwatch – 2022 Nesting Season Report - an account of peregrine falcon nesting activity in WI for 2022. Milwaukee, WI. 75 pp. https://www.wecenergygroup.com/environment/falcons/wi-falconwatch-report.pdf

Septon, Greg. 2021. Wisconsin Falconwatch – 2021 Nesting Season Report - an account of peregrine falcon nesting activity in WI for 2021. Milwaukee, WI. 91 pp. https://mrmccampus.org/MRMC/media/Thermal-Plant/WI-FALCONWATCH-2021.pdf

Septon, Greg. 2020. Wisconsin Falconwatch – 2020 Nesting Season Report - an account of peregrine falcon nesting activity in WI for 2020. Milwaukee, WI. 70 pp. https://www.mge.com/MGE/media/Library/falcons/WISCONSIN-FALCONWATCH-2020.pdf