Webcam captures year’s first peregrine falcon eggs

Spring has arrived, and so, too, have the first peregrine falcon eggs in We Energies nesting boxes, which birders can watch on live webcams over the next few months.

Essity, with partner Michael, laid her first egg on Saturday in a nesting box at the Oak Creek Power Plant. She laid her second egg the following day, according to a release from We Energies. It’s 3-year-old Essity’s second year at the site and Michael’s fifth year.

At Milwaukee’s Valley Power Plant, an unbanded female laid her first egg on Sunday with her partner, Hercules. Greg Septon, We Energies’ peregrine falcon manager, thinks the female is the same one who has been nesting at the site since 2014. This is Hercules’s eighth year at the site.

The pairs are expected to lay more eggs over the coming weeks — females typically produce a clutch of three or four eggs — and the eggs should hatch in about a month.

In 2020, Essity laid four eggs between March 26 and April 5, and three hatched between May 4 and 6. Hercules’ partner laid three eggs Between March 26 and April 4, and all three hatched on May 5.

Both pairs can be viewed on webcams on the We Energies website (wec energygroup.com/environment/

falcons) during nesting season (typically February through July), along with two other nesting boxes at the Port Washington Generating Station and Wisconsin Public Service’s Weston Power Plant in Rothschild.

We Energies and WPS began installing nesting boxes at their power plants in the ’90s, since peregrine falcons like to nest on steep bluffs or highrise buildings near water, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Since then, 410 falcons have hatched in their boxes, representing 22% of the peregrine falcons born in the wild in Wisconsin, according to the power company.

Peregrine falcons are native to Wisconsin, but by the 1960s they had essentially disappeared from the state. The causes were similar to those that led to the decline of bald eagles — habitat loss and DDT, which thinned their egg shells and caused them to crack when the falcons incubated them.

While the raptors are still listed as endangered in Wisconsin, they are making a comeback thanks to the banning of DDT in the ’70s and efforts by Septon and others to reintroduce them since then. In 2020, 38 nest sites produced 116 young — an increase of 5% over 2019, according to FalconWatch, an annual report produced by Septon.

Essity and Michael’s chicks should hatch in mid-April, then fledge (fly from their nest) 35 to 42 days after that.

Interested viewers can follow their progress via the webcams or on We Energies’ Twitter and Facebook pages.

WE ENERGIES A peregrine falcon prepares to incubate two eggs in a We Energies nest box at the Oak Creek Power Plant.