Falcon chicks found for first time in 50 years
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
For the first time in more than 50 years, biologists have discovered a pair of peregrine falcon chicks on Santa Barbara Island.
The discovery was made April 20, when a biologist with the National Park Service climbed to the falcon nest hoping to retrieve an unhatched egg that would be used to make a contaminant analysis of the shell. Instead, he found the just-hatched chicks.
Peregrine falcons, bald eagles and many seabirds in Southern California have had problems breeding in the last half-century because of DDT and PCBs that contaminated the local food web. A pair of peregrine falcons established themselves on the island in 1995, but no reproduction had been confirmed until last week.
