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Jun 1, 2007 6:58 pm US/Central
Falcon, Once On Brink Of Extinction, Thriving
(WCCO)
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Each year, a batch of babies comes down from the nest for a few minutes for banding, which is used for tracking.
CBS
For almost 20 years now, Peregrine Falcons have been using a nest set up by Xcel Energy on top of a power plant stack in Bayport, Minn.
Each year, a batch of babies comes down from the nest for a few minutes for banding, which is used for tracking.
"The Peregrine Falcon -- 20 years ago -- was on just the brink of extinction," said Bob Anderson from the Raptor Resource Project.
However, just since the nest at the power plant was built, more than 50 young falcons have been produced.
"You're gonna see nature's top gun in action. She's gonna be dive-bombing us -- protecting her site," said Anderson. "She'll be swooping on us, trying to stop us from working with her babies. We're only gonna pull the babies out for a few minutes, just to put the bands on them and then we'll run them back to the nest."
On Friday a second grade class got to see the hatchlings face to face. The class has been watching the falcons on a web cam for months, that's why Friday was an accomplishment to see them go from egg to fuzzy baby bird.
"They're having a great time and we've been following them on the bird cam, and so we followed them from the time before they laid the eggs, until today and its a great culmination," said Carolyn Hild from Andersen Elementary.
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