Get to know the family of falcons that make the International Bridge home

Brendan Wiesner, Sault Ste. Marie News
A peregrine falcon and mate have made a nest in the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.
A peregrine falcon and mate have made a nest in the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.

SAULT STE. MARIE — Sault residents on both sides of the border are watching closely as a family of falcons set up their home on the International Bridge.

A pair of peregrine falcons has returned to the American side to raise a family after nesting on the Canadian side last year. The International Bridge built several nesting boxes on the underside of the bridge to give room to the returning birds, which have made the bridge their home for several years.

Karl Hansen, bridge engineer for the International Bridge Administration, reported that the pair of peregrines has laid three eggs in the U.S.-side nest box.

Since 2010, people have been watching the birds through live stream cameras in nest boxes placed at locations that had evidence of past nesting activity.

A mother peregrine falcon watches a Michigan Department of Natural Resources team put leg bands on chicks hatched at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.
A mother peregrine falcon watches a Michigan Department of Natural Resources team put leg bands on chicks hatched at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.

"Over the years, the site has been a great success, hatching 39 falcon chicks since IBA staff started counting the birds," Hansen said. “Since both nest boxes were installed, until last year the birds had never nested in the Canadian box, as far as we’re aware. This year, they’re back in the U.S.A.”

The live stream camera, known as the "FalCam" has become popular among bridge workers as well as Sault residents and others.

The live video stream is viewable at saultbridge.com/falcam.

The birds are tracked and protected by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, which bands the birds found on the bridge in the summer.

A Michigan Department of Natural Resources team put identifying bands on peregrine falcon chicks that successfully hatched at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.
A Michigan Department of Natural Resources team put identifying bands on peregrine falcon chicks that successfully hatched at the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge.

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This data is used to gather information on migration patterns, population growth and nesting. Pictures of at least one of the birds banded at the International Bridge have been captured as far south as the Dominican Republic.

The peregrine falcons are tracked so closely because they haven't been in Michigan since the 1970s due to the use of environmental contaminants, but have slowly been returning thanks to conservation efforts. The falcon population in Michigan has fluctuated since the 1990s.

The peregrine falcon has been removed from the federal endangered species list but is listed as an endangered species in Michigan, and is protected by state and federal law. In Canada, peregrine populations have also increased in recent years. Federally, the species is designated “not at risk” in Canada, except for one subspecies listed as of “special concern” on the federal Species at Risk Act.

Of all the active peregrine falcon nesting sites monitored by the DNR in the Upper Peninsula, the International Bridge is the second most productive in terms of chicks hatched, behind only a nest on Grand Portal Cliff at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

— Contact Brendan Wiesner: BWiesner@Sooeveningnews.com

This article originally appeared on The Sault News: Get to know the family of falcons that make the International Bridge home

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