That breeding facility was there until 1984. When they realized they were going to be successful, they opened a breeding facility in Fort Collins. West of the Mississippi there were only 40 breeding pairs that they were aware of and only one breeding pair in California. It had completely disappeared east of the Mississippi River. Their goal was to repopulate the Anatum Falcon, which is a sub-species of Peregrine. They opened a western branch in 1974 in Fort Collins, Colorado. They successfully bred there and that started the recovery.
By 1974 they were able to release the birds into the wild in New Jersey. Tom Cade started breeding Peregrines at Cornell University in New York using birds that were given to him by falconers. The Peregrine Falcon was listed as endangered in 1999. In her book, Silent Spring that was published in 1962, she spoke of the disastrous consequences of using DDT, and the decline of the Peregrine Falcon is just one example of what she was referring to. Rachel Carson took DDT to task and is very responsible for getting DDT banned in the United States. DDT is a pesticide that was touted as the wonder pesticide, but it had long-lasting effects, beyond what anyone could imagine. He, and a number of other falconers and biologists, were alarmed at the decline of the Peregrine Falcon, the source being DDT. He was a falconer, conservationist, and a scientist. The Peregrine Fund was started in 1970 by Doctor Tom Cade, who passed away about a month ago. He is also a falconer and owns a raptor that he uses for hunting. His degree is in biology, but as far as birds of prey go he is pretty much self-taught. Terry and I met up with Raptor Specialist Mike Garets at The World Center for Birds of Prey and he was amazing with his knowledge! He has been the Raptor Specialist at World Center for Birds of Prey for 6 years. They are a pain in the butt to build, however, the end result is amazing! When you see a mating pair of Osprey and you know that you were responsible for setting up that nest it sends a chill down your spine and love in your heart, it’s an added bonus when they have babies in the nest!. These boxes were set up in marshes and on the edges of lakes. Later in life I went to work as a volunteer for Idaho Fish and Game and we were building boxes for the Osprey to nest in. I wrote about how they are getting electrocuted by their wings touching on the hotwires of utility poles.
I chose to write a paper on the Osprey, which is a world wide raptor that is also found in Idaho. When I was in elementary school we were told to write a paper on an animal of our choice. As most of you that have been following the magazine know, I am pretty diverse with my subject matter. I had wanted to do an article on The World Center Birds for Birds of Prey and The Peregrine Fund for purely selfish reasons. I have a tendency to run into articles purely by accident or by my own volition. It’s a Peregrine Falcon named “Schmidt” Photo by Terry Welch Mike Garets Raptor Specialist with a Peregrine subspecies from South America.
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