Peregrines were reintroduced into Wisconsin beginning in the 1980’s. During the first Breeding Bird Atlas in the 1990s, peregrines were recorded nesting at 11 sites. Their nests were mostly found at power plants or tall buildings along Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, or the Mississippi River - the only inland record was from Madison.
This year - the first year of the second atlas project - shows at least 14 pairs have been found nesting including a pair at the MG&E power plant in Madison and at Devils Lake State Park!
Dan Berger, co-founder of the Cedar Grove Hawk Research Station in 1950, banded young peregrines from Wisconsin eyries in the 1950’s and was very pleased to find banded young a few years ago from the cliff at Maiden Rock on the Mississippi River.
Dan reported in the first week of October that over 30 peregrines had been seen at Cedar Grove but none were trapped and banded.
The name "peregrine" means wanderer, and the peregrine falcon has one of the longest migrations of any North American bird. Tundra-nesting falcons winter in South America, and may move 15,500 miles in a year.
Arlene Koziol photographed an unbanded peregrine on October 19 and we observed a banded peregrine on October 23rd. We could see the silver Fish and Wildlife Service band and could not see the other leg that may have contained color bands. The unbanded bird may be heading from the tundra to South America while the banded bird may be Wisconsin peregrine. If you see a banded peregrine please let us know the band color code and we will try and get the location it was banded.
Thanks to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for providing information on the peregrine falcon.
Written by Mark Martin & Sue Foote-Martin, Goose Pond Sanctuary Managers
Photo by Ron Knight, Flickr Creative Commons