EAST LANSING, Mich. — After a short partnership, Michigan State University (MSU) and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) are sunsetting a peregrine falcon monitoring program.
But the program is ending not because of its failure, but because of its success. After three years of putting identification bands on peregrine falcon chicks and monitoring their movements, the species has shown it is recovering.
Michigan State announced Monday that the species status had been reduced from a state-endangered species to a state-threatened species.
In 2022, the MSU Fisheries and Wildlife Club helped set up a nest box on top of Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.
A live camera of the nest box on Spartan Stadium has been streaming since December of 2022 and is available 24/7 here:
The three Peregrine falcon chicks that are living there now were banded on June 3 and are named Reggie, Acorn and Franklin.
The nest box on Spartan Stadium has been home to 10 chicks in the past three years.
Jim Schneider, a senior specialist and undergraduate program coordinator in MSU’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, has been involved with the banding project.
Schneider says that the falcons have been spotted around campus since the early 2000s, but previous nest boxes placed around campus weren't being used.
“Eventually we just started “listening” to the birds. They’d been frequenting the south end of Spartan Stadium for several years. We finally just said, if that’s where they prefer, let’s try and make it happen,” Schneider said. “The MSU Fisheries and Wildlife Club approached the Spartan Stadium facilities staff with their idea, which they enthusiastically supported, and the rest is history, ten peregrine chicks later.”
Peregrine falcons were first reintroduced to Michigan between 1986 to 1992. Since then, all of the peregrine falcons born in the state have been wild.
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