Falcons make comeback in Massachusetts

There are more than a half-dozen pairs of nesting falcons in Western Massachusetts this spring.

Like grizzly bears and timber wolves, peregrine falcons, which historically hunted from nests set on remote mountain cliffs, were thought of as a wilderness species, likely to retreat from the spread of human development.

Not true, it turns out.

Today, in Massachusetts, having come back from the brink of elimination in much of the nation in the 1960s, these increasingly abundant birds of prey readily construct nests on bridges, skyscrapers and even airport towers.

In fact, there are thought to be more nesting falcon pairs in Massachusetts now – 20 – than in historic times, with most now nesting on manmade structures, says Thomas W. French, assistant director of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.

“Our highest wild population was believed to be 14 pairs in the 1930s and 1940s. I would say of those 14 nest sites, only three are currently occupied. Apparently the birds don’t consider them as good as the artificial stuff,” he said. “It’s quite remarkable. Peregrine falcons were really thought to be an icon of the wilderness.”

Use of the pesticide DDT after World War II nearly wiped out falcons, eagles and other birds of prey in much of the United States, as it caused them to lay eggs with deficient shells. But, a ban on the chemical in 1972 allowed their populations to recover.

However, following the ban, it was not until 1989 that the first falcon pair produced young in Western Massachusetts. A pair nested on an upper floor window ledge on the Monarch Place office building in downtown Springfield.

The Monarch Place nest site became the most successful in the region, producing nearly 30 chicks over the years. In the past three years, the pair that had been nesting there moved to a cement support beneath the Memorial Bridge between Springfield and West Springfield.

Elsewhere in the Pioneer Valley this season falcons are nesting, or have shown signs of nesting, beneath the Massachusetts Turnpike bridge crossing the Connecticut River in West Springfield, on Mount Tom in Easthampton, on Mount Sugarloaf in Deerfield, on Holyoke City Hall, on the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at University of Massachusetts in Amherst and on a cliff face near French King Gorge in Gill.

French says the only historic cliff sites now occupied by falcons in the state are the three in the Pioneer Valley.

“Historically, in Western Massachusetts, we also had Monument Mountain in the Berkshires, Hanging Mountain in Sandisfield and Pettibone Falls in Cheshire. None of the three is occupied,” he said.

While peregrine falcons recovered enough that they were dropped from the federal endangered species list in 1999, they remain on the state’s endangered list. French said their growing numbers in Massachusetts means “we’re contemplating bringing them down in listing.”