‘Premature’ to remove falcons from danger list
The peregrine falcon, which once faced extinction, should not be removed from the federal listing that at one time protected the bird as endangered, Canadian Peregrine Foundation co-founder and president Mark Nash says.
“It was very premature,” Nash said of de-listing the peregrine falcons which have adapted to nesting on skyscrapers and in Windsor’s case, on a ledge under the Ambassador Bridge.
“It took us so long to get the bird protected,” Nash said. “In retrospect it’s taken a very short time to take them off that list, a disturbingly short time.”
Canada’s main population of the peregrine falcon was assessed this year as Not at Risk of extinction by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
In early December, Marcel Gahbauer, Co-chair of COSEWIC’s Birds Specialist Subcommittee, called it positive news. The peregrine falcon was among the first species assessed by the committee in 1978 when the falcon was listed as endangered because of the banned but still lingering DDT pesticide.
“The ongoing recovery of the Peregrine represents a rare but important example of how focused stewardship can lead to success. This is definitely a good news story,” Gahbauer said in a release.
Marilyn Weller, a former volunteer site coordinator for the Canadian Peregrine Foundation Windsor watch group at the Ambassador Bridge, said she’s concerned it’s too soon.
“It’s unfortunate until we really have evidence of the peregrines back in full force and not being threatened,” she said.
Nash said the Windsor nest under the Ambassador Bridge was one of the most productive in Ontario this year with four chicks. Volunteers under the bridge with binoculars used to keep track of Voltaire and her mate Freddie but in 2015 realized there was drama at the bridge, a different male named Victor had moved in. The peregrines under the bridge got local people interested in the falcons and their comeback.
Nash hopes the federal committee will wait another five years for the next assessment across Canada before taking the falcons off the list. Their numbers are increasing but Nash questions the population numbers which are gauged by observations that a territory is occupied. Seeing one peregrine doesn’t tell the whole story of whether there is an adult pair, if eggs are being hatched or if chicks are surviving, he said.
“We are seeing population increases and that’s great news for the peregrines. As far as a species that’s no longer at risk? There are many questions,” Nash said.
There are concerns about the effect of chemicals used in flame retardants, pesticides that are hurting pollinators, and West Nile disease. The falcons eat birds which they catch in flight, sometimes in a dive that reaches speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour.
If the peregrine falcon is removed from the COSEWIC list and federal protection, it could open the door for habitat destruction, which is bad for the birds the cliffdwelling falcons eat and in turn for peregrine falcons, Nash said.
And Canadian peregrine falcons are being trapped to use in falconry in the United States where it is legal in some states to harvest migrating peregrine falcons which would likely be ones from Canada, he said.
The peregrine falcon had been listed as endangered but the population has been increasing since the 1970s. After being listed as endangered in 1978, it was bumped down to threatened in 1999 and is currently listed as a species of special concern. There is a subspecies in British Columbia that should still be listed as special concern, the committee said.