Bringing Peregrine Falcons Back to Virginia’s Mountains, Mar. 1st

Mount Vernon Government Center
2511 Parkers Lane, Alexandria VA
(Near U.S. 1 and a mile from The George Washington Memorial Parkway)
Sunday, 1 March 2020
2 pm
Free, open to the public

National Park Service biologist, Rolf Gubler, will give a talk about the Peregrine Falcon restoration project at Shenandoah National Park.

A team brings at-risk Peregrine Falcon chicks from bridge nest sites in eastern Virginia to Virginia’s mountains, once part of their historic range. They hope the birds will imprint on the park’s cliffs and return as breeding adults. This project boosts mountain peregrine populations and aids in the survival of bridge nest peregrine chicks where fledging is often difficult due to insufficient updrafts.

Peregrine Falcons were used for hunting or falconry as early as 2000 B.C. in China and Egypt and in World War II, both the British/U.S. and the German armies had a falcon corps to intercept their opponent’s homing pigeons. Peregrines are found in rural and urban environments and on every continent except Antarctica.