This year marks the 30th anniversary of an effort to save the peregrine falcon population in Wisconsin. We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service has been working with the Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project to bring back the raptors from the edge of extinction since the 1990s, when nest boxes were installed on the power plants.
Greg Septon, the founder of the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project, began efforts to restore peregrines in Wisconsin during the late 1970s while he was working at the Milwaukee Public Museum.
"By 1964 the population was pretty much extinct everywhere east of the Mississippi River due to the effects of the chemical pesticide DDT so we began a recovery program here in Wisconsin in 1987," he explains.
Between 1987 and 1992, the program helped release 108 captive-produced peregrines throughout the state. We Energies joined in the the effort to restore the falcon population and installed nest boxes on power plants in the early 1990s. Now 20% of the peregrine falcons born in Wisconsin come from those nest boxes, and the falcon population continues to climb.
"Last year we had a record year, we had 43 successful nests that produced a total of 122 young and that was across the state from the cliffs on the Mississippi River, from power plants, to grain elevators, to paper mills," Septon says." Here in the greater Milwaukee area, we actually have 10 active peregrine nest sites."
Mike Grisar, the environmental team leader for We Energies, explains the public can follow along with the falcons success story by watching a live camera feed at each of the nest boxes. The nest box cameras have been available to the public for more than a decade. He says the egg laying has begun and the falcons are spending a lot of time incubating the eggs.
"So right now, you're not gonna see a lot of activity, although you'll see almost constantly a falcon in the nest box. In a few weeks those eggs will begin to hatch and ... when the eggs hatch there'll be a puff ball about the size of a ping pong ball," Grisar says.
Power plants make ideal nest sites for peregrine falcons because the raptors are naturally drawn to tall structures along bodies of water like rivers and large lakes, where many power plants are located.
"It's really amazing how fast they grow and how much they change from day to day. It's really an enjoyable time cause you do get a very first hand, almost within arms reach, view of what happens in nature with raising a young brood of peregrine falcons," Grisar says.
Once the chicks are big enough, they'll be banded. Each year, We Energies holds a naming contest for the chicks that hatch at the plants. Grisar explains that this year, there will be a little twist on the contest — "We've got a really fun naming contest planned for memorializing the 30th anniversary. I can't give a whole lot of details but it's a little bit of a throw back from the last 30 years. So it should be a lot of fun."
A total of 421 peregrine falcons have been born, named and banded at We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service nest sites. Septon has banded over 1,250 peregrine falcon chicks — approximately 60% of all falcons born in the wild in Wisconsin — during his career.
"If peregrines are doing well in our world, our world is fairly healthy. There aren’t any contaminant levels that are taking them down, there aren't people out there stealing eggs from their nests or shooting them ... and to have them back again says a lot about what we’ve done to help bring them back but also the health of our environment," he says.
