Falcons’ downtown nesting attempt fails

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YoUNGSTOWN

A rooftop nesting attempt by a pair of peregrine falcons at the 17-story International Towers apartment building, at 25 Market St. in the city’s downtown, appears to have failed, a state wildlife official said.

Damon Greer, assistant wildlife supervisor with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, said he found only eggshell fragments and just one 10- to 11-day-old chick that was “very small for its age and did not look healthy” on a May 20 visit to the nesting site.

Another state wildlife official, Jeremy Byers, had found four unhatched eggs being incubated there April 8.

Greer said he put a gravel-filled tray under the chick May 21 to elevate it off the roof, where rainwater had ponded, and he saw the adult birds feeding the chick that morning.

However, Greer said local observers have not seen the adults feeding the chick since May 24, so he concluded that the chick died from weakness or from exposure to the cold and rain.

“It’s been extremely wet, and we’ve had some very cool conditions,” said Greer, whose agency monitors 18 peregrine-falcon nests in Northeast Ohio, including the one in Youngstown.

Peregrines are raptors that were upgraded by the federal government in 2008 from endangered to threatened species status because of increases in their population.

Due to adverse weather conditions this year, only 50 percent of peregrine eggs laid in this region have hatched, compared with about 75 percent in a typical year, Greer said.

Byers earlier had said cold rainwater ponding on the International Towers roof could interfere with egg incubation.

In a failed peregrine nesting attempt last year at Metropolitan Tower in downtown Youngstown, the eggs got wet and chilled, and the embryos died.

However, the pair nested for a second time last year, producing three chicks that hatched June 25 on a Mahoning County Courthouse window ledge. Two of those chicks survived after one was run over and killed by a motor vehicle on the Market Street Bridge.

As time passes, the likelihood of another nesting attempt this year is diminishing, Greer said. However, he concluded: “I haven’t given up hope for this year. It certainly could happen.”