Getting set to leave the nest: Falcons banded at two U.P bridges
Fast facts:
– A pair of peregrine falcons successfully nested on the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge, where the birds have been returning for years, raising one chick.
– In honor of the 350th anniversary of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., the hatchling was named after Susan Johnston (Ozhaguscodaywayquay in Ojibwe), a prominent Sault resident in the early 1800s.
– Another pair of the endangered birds has successfully nested on the Portage Lake Lift Bridge again this year.
July 2, 2018 — It’s been a productive summer for Upper Peninsula bridges and their resident raptors, with peregrine falcons at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge successfully raising a chick and the Portage Lake Lift Bridge between Houghton and Hancock seeing three hatchlings this spring.
On the eastern end of the U.P., Karl Hansen, bridge engineer for the International Bridge Administration (IBA), reported that a pair of peregrine falcons successfully nested atop the bridge between the U.S. and Canada this spring, hatching two chicks – one of which died after hatching. (more…)
