LOWELL – Five peregrine falcon chicks hatched at UMass Lowell in May were deemed healthy and thriving by Massachusetts wildlife officials who visited campus last week. The biologists checked in on the birds in their nest box atop the university’s Fox Hall to fit them with ID bands that enroll them in monitoring and protection programs.
A female falcon and her mate, along with the five chicks – three males and two females – live in the nest box maintained by the university as part of its effort to grow the peregrine population. The birds are monitored via webcams that allow the public to see them in their urban habitat high above the Merrimack River. Area schoolteachers often use the birds’ story to help educate children about wildlife. Fox Hall is the tallest building in Lowell.
“They are the fastest animals in the world, reaching 240 mph in flight. Oftentimes, they will kill their prey mid-air, and it’s an incredibly adaptive animal, living in the city and the country,” Chalis Bird, a wildlife biologist with the Massachusetts Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, told a group of UMass Lowell students, staff, leaders and community volunteers on hand for the event. “The falcons have made a comeback from extinction from the effects of DDT and are an incredible success story.”
Bird led a team of staff from the division and the state Department of Transportation’s Wildlife and Endangered Species Unit up to the building’s roof to retrieve the chicks from the nest box and bring them inside the building. There, working in front of the group, the specialists examined each of the chicks to determine their gender and fit them with numbered metal bands that allow wildlife officials to track the falcons over the birds’ lifespans. The birds, which were safely returned to the nest box about an hour later, will fledge and fly to new territory this summer.
UMass Lowell’s care of the raptors is just one of the initiatives that exemplifies the university’s commitment to sustainability and the environment. The university is the highest-rated campus for sustainability in Massachusetts, according to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE).
Thadius Dubsky of Southbridge, who is studying toward his master’s degree in industrial engineering, is among the students who volunteer to monitor the falcons’ well-being on campus.
“I loved it,” he said of the event. “It’s great to see them all. It’s the largest clutch of chicks I’ve seen in my time at UMass Lowell. It’s going to be crazy keeping track of them this summer.”
A mating pair of the majestic peregrines has called Fox Hall home since at least 2007, when the birds were discovered on the building’s roof by UMass Lowell employees. Together with state officials, the university constructed the nest box to shelter the birds from the elements. Peregrines do not build traditional nests and often lay their eggs out in the open.
Also known as “duck hawks,” the birds are UMass Lowell’s real-life River Hawks – the namesake of the university’s athletic teams. Over the past 18 years, 49 peregrine chicks have been raised atop of Fox Hall, the city’s tallest building.
“A common theme for these events is partnership, and UMass Lowell has been a great partner. The data that we get is invaluable,” said David Paulson, supervisor of the Department of Transportation’s wildlife and endangered species unit, about the banding process.
Previously an endangered species, the federally protected falcons are listed in Massachusetts as birds “of special concern.”
Today, more than 44 nesting pairs have been identified across the Bay State, according to wildlife officials. Falcons raised at UMass Lowell have gone on to establish other nests in Lowell, Concord, Leominster and Newburyport, Massachusetts, and as far away as Nashua, New Hampshire; Cape May, New Jersey; and Providence, Rhode Island.
