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	Peregrine Falcons in New Hampshire

Peregrines Soaring Toward Delisting

by Chris Martin, ASNH Senior Biologist

With a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposal to remove the peregrine falcon from the federal endangered species list on the horizon, New Hampshire's peregrine recovery program completed another successful year in 1998. This year's statewide breeding totals exactly matched the record-high marks set just one year ago: twelve occupied territories, ten nesting pairs, and sixteen young fledged. ASNH field staff, employees from cooperating agencies, and dozens of volunteers searched for falcons at more than 50 potential nesting sites. Highlights from 1998 included the first successful hatching of falcon eggs at Cathedral Ledge in more than 40 years. We discovered one new pair nesting in Kinsman Notch. Biologists from the USFWS and ASNH once again teamed up with climbers to reach remote peregrine nesting ledges, placing alphanumeric bands on the legs of each of this year's sixteen fledglings and gathering feather samples from each young bird to be used in a new study of peregrine falcon genetics. Since color banding of northern New England's annual crop of young falcons was revived in 1992, an amazing 94% (81 of 86) of all known fledglings produced in New Hampshire have been marked. Much of the credit for this accomplishment goes to professional climbing guides and other rock climbers, many of whom have enthusiastically donated their time and expertise to help us reach otherwise inaccessible nests. Falcon chicks banded at New Hampshire cliffs are increasingly being seen in wintering areas, along migration routes, and at breeding sites throughout the northeast - seven birds verified in 1998 alone. Likewise, three falcons banded in similar efforts elsewhere were found in New Hampshire in 1998. As of late May, this year's peregrine breeding season was shaping up as far and away New Hampshire's most productive ever, but two heartbreaking June losses reduced the number of young fledged by roughly 25%. An entire brood of four young falcons at Cathedral Ledge perished during a week-long deluge that dumped more than a foot of rain in the Saco River valley. Meanwhile, just upriver at Frankenstein Cliff, at least one more chick died during the same wet week. Despite such occasional local setbacks, peregrine falcon populations in New Hampshire and across the U. S. continue to steadily increase. For example, in the USFWS's Recovery Region 2 (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York's Adirondacks), the population has doubled during the past decade, rising from 25 territorial pairs and 34 young fledged in 1989 to 50 pairs and 71 young in 1998.