A baby peregrine falcon gets cranky

From Charleston Gazette, May 28, 2011
GRANDVIEW, W.Va. -- As a birthplace for peregrine falcons, Virginia's Robert O. Norris Bridge, arching 110 feet over the mouth of the Rappahannock River and crossed by 11,000 vehicles a day, is often a deathtrap.

The bridge offers adult peregrines a good vantage point from which to prey on a wide variety of birds drawn to the western shore of Chesapeake Bay.

"But for young peregrines learning to fly, the bridge has a very high mortality rate," said Wendy Perrone, director of the Three Rivers Avian Center and project coordinator for the New River Gorge's peregrine falcon restoration program. "Many of them are hit by cars and trucks."

A brother and sister peregrine falcon, collected from a nest on the Virginia bridge earlier this week by Virginia wildlife personnel, have been relocated to a cliff along the rim of the New River Gorge, where they will be released in two or three weeks, after acclimating to their new, more peaceful, home ...

READ REST OF OF STORY by Rick Steelhammer (with video shot by Lawrence Pierce and edited by Douglas Imbrogno): http://wvgazette.com/Multimedia/201105281173

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