When most of the student body was beginning to taking advantage of the summer, others had just arrived to the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus.
Soon after graduation on May 31, three peregrine falcon chicks were removed from a nesting box on the northeast corner of the W.E.B. Du Bois library and banded. This is the third year that successful nesting has occurred on the library.
The banding of the birds was overseen by Mass Wildlife?s Connecticut Valley District who will continue to track the birds throughout their lives. The library nesting project began with the joint efforts of many on and off campus groups in 1998. The final goal of all parties was to increase the number of peregrine falcons, which is still an endangered species in the area.
Nesting however was not immediate. ?There was evidence the box was being visited,? said Pete Westover, the former Conservation Department Director for the Town of Amherst, ?but successful nesting really did not start for a few years.?
David Fuller of Mass Wildlife explained that the nesting box was specifically designed to accommodate the nesting habits of peregrine falcons. Peregrines naturally nest of ledges and unlike other birds they do not make a nest out of sticks, grass and other common nest building materials, they lay their eggs right on the ledge. The box has three walls, a roof and an open front, the bottom has been covered with pea stone to simulate a rocky ledge. There is also a raised lip on the open side of the box to prevent the eggs from rolling out of the box and plummeting 28 stories.
Peregrines and humans ?coexist pretty well in these types of situation,? said Fuller, who also made it quite clear that these birds of prey are not threatening to people.
The peregrine falcon, which is a little bigger than a crow, has a diet of water fowl, song birds, and pigeons. Fuller made the prediction that?s students may be able to catch a glimpse of a peregrine assail a pigeon around Lederle.
The plight of the peregrine began in the 1950s and 60s when DDT was around the country as an insecticide. DDT was extremely detrimental to the peregrine population which has just recently begun to show improvement.
Just as the chicks found at the start of the summer were banded so have the chicks found in the past two years. Using these bands it has been found that some of the chicks born atop the W.E. B. Dubois library have migrated all across the eastern seaboard according to Westover.
If you are interested in helping out in this or other wildlife issues in the area there is a student chapter of The Wildlife Society at UMass-Amherst.
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