Pomona Valley Audubon -
Chaparral Naturalist Archives

When we arrived in Louisville, KY this June, it was exciting to find the town buzzing with the news that two baby peregrine falcons had been found clinging to the undergirding structure of the Kennedy Bridge, which carries I-80 from Louisville to Indiana across the Ohio River.

A pair of peregrines had been seen around Louisville’s downtown and waterfront since 1992. Monitoring this pair had begun in 1995 by the Louisville zoo’s curator of birds and crew of volunteers. But it was not until this year that two downy heads were seen peering from openings in a hollow cross-brace on the underside of the bridge, which the parents had chosen for a nest site. It is the first confirmed nesting by the endangered birds in Kentucky in at least half a century.

There was no sign of mating last year but observers suspected something was happening this spring when the adults were observed regularly beneath the bridge. Then the male killed a pigeon and a starling within 20 minutes, which suggested that chicks needed to be fed. The nesting may have been going on for several years, but bridge-nesting birds have little success in raising their young. Too often the chicks fall into the river during their first attempts at flight.

While the zoo officials now plan to place nesting boxes under the bridge next year, it was important to try and make sure

A sizeable group of birders used row boats, power boats and canoes to watch the young peregrines attempt first flight. However, the male fledgling made it from the bridge to a piling on the Louisville waterfront without anyone seeing it. When spotted on the piling, it was about to make a return flight to the bridge, which it did successfully. Later that week a call came from a motorist saying he had just spotted a young bird resting on the grassy slope adjacent to a Louisville freeway that runs along the river bank. Zoo officials rushed to retrieve the female fledgling, which had made it to shore, and returned her to the abandoned railroad bridge that parallels the Kennedy Bridge.

Both fledglings continued to develop aerial skills and were doing well: and finally they were gone. Louisville Zoo bird keeper Karen Valeta is very pleased that the project was successful. She is not optimistic about placing nest boxes under the Kennedy Bridge, but may place some on the railroad bridge and see what might happen next year.

From this experience we learned that there are interested citizens throughout the country who

Postscript: Before submitting this article to the editor I checked with the Louisville Zoo to see if there was further news of the young falcons. I learned that one of the two young birds is recovering from a broken wing at a rehabilitation center in Minnesota.

The male bird was found Aug. 13 in southwest Jefferson County, Indiana. The injured bird spent two days at the zoo before being sent to the University of Minnesota, which has a center that specializes in treating birds of prey.

The falcon is about 4 months old, an age when it is beginning to fend for itself. One important step toward independence is learning to hunt. The young bird probably crashed while chasing prey.

According to Karen Valeta, only one or two young peregrines out of 10 live long enough to reproduce. If all goes well and this bird heals properly, it will again be released in the Louisville area.