Members of the Raptor Resource Project banded four Peregrine falcon chicks on June 4 at Dairyland Power Cooperative’s John P. Madgett power plant in Alma, Wis. The four chicks, three males (Genoa, Roger, Decklin) and one female (Evelyn) are all in good health. Fledging of the chicks will likely occur in late June or early July.

Banding of the Peregrine falcon chicks provides a way to identify the birds after they leave the nesting box. The bands are marked with a code and recorded in a national database that includes the sex and banding location. These codes are used to help track and monitor individual birds after they fledge and disperse.

Keep up with the falcons via Dairyland’s online Bird Cam
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 at www.dairylandpower.com to watch. 

About 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, 149 chicks have fledged from Dairyland sites.

Historically, Dairyland has had nesting boxes at both Alma and Genoa locations. Due to the closure of the Genoa Station #3 power plant (G-3), the box has been removed. Dairyland and the Raptor Resource Project are looking into future locations or uses for the G-3 nesting box.