Thursday, May 15, 2025

Game Commission, DEP, DCNR Host May 22 Live Banding Of Young Peregrine Falcons; Connection To PA’s Rachel Carson

On May 22 starting at 10:00 a.m., the Game Commission will band the three young peregrine falcons nesting on the Rachel Carson Building in Harrisburg.

The banding will be available on DEP’s Facebook page and DEP’s PaCast webpage.

Banding helps check the health of each young falcon and places a tracking band on their leg to monitor their journey. In as little as a week, the eyasses will be nearly adult-sized and preparing to take their first flight!

Rachel Carson Connection

Pennsylvania’s Rachel Carson was born on May 27, 1907, in Springdale, Pennsylvania, a small town north of Pittsburgh. As an adult, Carson worked for the government as a scientist and writer.

Carson studied the role of poisons in the environment. Her book, "Silent Spring", published in 1962, addressed the dangers posed by DDT.

The evidence was undisputedly conclusive that DDT interfered with calcium metabolism in birds at the top of the food chain. 

With no mechanism to excrete or breakdown DDT, birds at the top of the food chain accumulated DDT as they ate smaller birds, which, in turn, ate insects exposed to DDT. This is called bioaccumulation. 

The interference with calcium metabolism caused thinning eggshells that broke easily.

Peregrine falcons, bald eagles and ospreys that are making an impressive comeback thanks to the environmental ethics and foreword thinking of people like Rachel Carson. 

When peregrine falcons were seen in Harrisburg in 1996, a nesting tray was put on the 15th floor ledge of the Rachel Carson Building in hopes of attracting a pair of reproducing falcons.

A successful pairing produced four offspring in 2000.

It is a happy irony, indeed, that these peregrine falcons chose to reside on the Rachel Carson State Office Building in Harrisburg, which was named in her honor.

Click Here to watch a WITF/PA Conservation Heritage Project documentary on Rachel Carson.

Visit the PA Falcon Cam webpage to watch the peregrine falcon nest live and for much more information on the comeback of peregrine falcons in Pennsylvania.

Resource Link:

-- Guest Essay: In Praise Of Rachel Carson And Public Service; Happy Birthday Rachel Carson! - By James M. Seif, Former Secretary, Department of Environmental Protection  [PaEN]

[Posted: May 15, 2025]  PA Environment Digest

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