Media Opportunity

May 16 Gulf Tower Peregrine Falcon Banding

(Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  May 10,  2007.)   With their flying days looming, four peregrine falcon chicks will be banded on the 37th floor of the downtown Gulf Tower on Seventh Street this coming  Wednesday, May 16. The event begins promptly at 10:30 a.m. and concludes before noon. The media is asked to arrive before 10:30 a.m. (The event is not open to the public).

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy staff and volunteers built the nest in 1991 and it was the first of its kind in western Pennsylvania. To date, 59 chicks have successfully hatched from the Gulf Tower nest. The once almost extinct peregrine has made a remarkable recovery both here and across the nation. Today, the peregrine falcon is no longer a federally endangered species.

WPC, the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Gulf Tower building management have collaborated for 16 years to provide a safe nesting site for the falcon pair on the ledge of the 37th floor. The nest box, built by volunteers, is filled with round pea-size gravel in which the peregrines create a depression to ensure their eggs do not roll off of the ledge. In the wild, peregrines nest on cliffs, but in urban settings, they seek a private spot on a tall building or bridge. When a pair of this endangered species first took up nesting at the Gulf Tower in 1991, it was the first nesting in western Pennsylvania in 40 years.



Because raptors are territorial, only one pair of peregrine falcons resides in downtown Pittsburgh, however peregrine-watchers in Pittsburgh have followed another pair sufficiently far enough away from the Gulf Tower pair. With financial aid from Pennsylvania Game Commission, the WPC staff and volunteers built a nest box near the top of the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland.  The first successful peregrine eggs hatched in the University of Pittsburgh nest in 2002. The banding date for the Pitt hatchlings has yest to be determined.

WPC is partnering with The National Aviary on the peregrine falcon project this year. Because the falcon is no longer endangered, beginning next season, both the Pitt and Gulf nesting sites will be coordinated by The National Aviary.

                                                                  

About the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy:
Since its founding in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has protected more than 212,000 acres of natural lands in Pennsylvania, restored watersheds and saved natural habitats for a diversity of life and uses.  The Conservancy has been responsible for the founding of six state parks, including Ohiopyle, Laurel Ridge, McConnell’s Mill, Moraine, Oil Creek and Erie Bluffs.  In addition, WPC created the 300-acre Wildflower Reserve at Raccoon Creek State Park, and added land to Blue Knob State Park.

The WPC also preserves Fallingwater®, the masterpiece home designed in 1935 by Frank Lloyd Wright for Edgar J. Kaufmann in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.  In 1963, Edgar Kaufmann jr. (sic) entrusted Fallingwater to the Conservancy.  Today, WPC continues its award winning preservation efforts and offers a wide variety of educational programs to more than 135,000 annual visitors.  The preservation of Fallingwater is a symbol of living in harmony with nature. 

Each year, WPC also partners with 5,000 volunteers and dozens of community organizations and businesses to plant and maintain more than 135 gardens and greening projects in 20 western Pennsylvania counties.

High resolution photographs are available upon request.

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