Four Peregrine Falcon chicks have hatched at Dairyland's Alma nesting box. The young falcons are expected to fledge the nest in early July. 

Eggs were first spotted on March 29 from the resident pair. The unnamed female is from a 2015 hatch from Midwest Plaza in Minneapolis and the male is unbanded. 

A camera is installed at the Alma power plant location to capture “real-time” online birdwatching at the nesting box. Click on the Bird Cam located on Dairyland's website home page to watch the real-time progress as the 2022 nesting season continues at our Alma Site.   

Background on the Peregrine Falcon Restoration Program:

Dairyland has been fostering the return of the Peregrine falcon to its natural territory along the Upper Mississippi since the 1990s. Once commonly seen in our region, the use of the pesticide DDT put the falcon on the Wisconsin Endangered and Threatened Species list in 1975. 

Nesting boxes were installed hundreds of feet up the stacks at Dairyland’s Alma and Genoa generating stations, and in 1997, a pair of Peregrine falcons produced chicks, marking the first successful Peregrine hatch in Western Wisconsin in 25 years. Since then, more than 150 chicks have fledged from Dairyland sites.

This is a great testament to the power of collaboration between industry and the environment. The ultimate goal of the Raptor Resource Project’s utility nesting program is to increase the population to a level where they would return to their natural nesting location. 

In 2021, the nesting box and Bird Cam at Dairyland’s Genoa Station #3 were removed due to the retirement of the plant.