PEREGRINE FALCONS NESTING AT GM BUILDING
Live cam gives enthusiasts a bird’s-eye view of activity
Officially, Kim Morse-Harvey is an engineer at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren; unofficially, she is the Peregrine Falcon whisperer.
“I have always been a birder and I’ve kind of inherited the job of watching over the falcons here at GM,’ said Morse-Harvey.
This spring, a pair of Peregrine Falcons are nesting on the 10th-floor ledge at the GM Cadillac Headquarters building on Van Dyke Avenue in Warren. The building has been a hot spot for falcons in the past, even when the building was owned by CampbellEwald marketing company 10 years ago.
“Falcons are very adaptable,” said MorseHarvey. “They have typically roosted in cliffs and rocky areas and they just like high places, so our building has just been a really good location for them over the years.”
The GM Tech Center is a certified wildlife habitat that contains many types of birds. When GM purchased the Campbell-Ewald building in 2014, the company wanted to maintain the nest and have recently rebuilt and replaced the nest box. Morse-Harvey’s husband, who is also an engineer, actually built and designed the new, state-of-the-art nesting box currently occupied by Fred and Wilma, the Peregrine Falcon tenants.
In the past, falcon chicks have been named after popular GM vehicles: Firebird, Nova, Spark, Lyriq.
There are no eggs in the nest yet, but Morse-Harvey said late March or early April is the time eggs are typically laid. The incubation period lasts for about 30 days with both the male and female adults taking turns warming the nest.
As with most raptors, the female falcon is larger than the male which enables her to sit on more eggs than her male partner. He is smaller so he can handle the majority of the hunting, but they do share the task of protecting the eggs.
“Once the eggs hatch, the Department of Natural Resources comes to band after about three weeks,” said Morse-Harvey.
“Then people from the Detroit Zoo will come in and check for mites and to make sure the chicks are healthy.
“They grow so incredibly fast.”
It won’t be until early or mid-July that the young falcons begin to fly.
Occasionally, there are mishaps that leave one of the young chicks on the ground and unable to fly back up to the safety of the Cadillac building nest.
“It usually happens at the point where they are able to fly, but are inexperienced and do not have enough strength to get back up on the building,” said Morse-Harvey. “We can take them to the falcon rehabilitation in Monroe, and they teach the chick how to fly and help it get its strength up so we can re-release it on top of the building.
“We have done that many times and have not had a problem with the adults accepting the chick back to the nest.”
Because of DNR banding, Morse-Harvey knows the female falcon on the GM building was born at the Detroit Zoo water tower. The male is not banded, so his origin is not known. Morse-Harvey said she expects these two falcons will remain in the 10th floor nest or return to it year after year as is typical with these birds of prey.
General Motors has a live camera on the Cadillac headquarters which enables the birds to be viewed via earthcam.com. There is also a Warren Peregrine Falcon Facebook page, followed by nearly 3,000, with pictures and information about the city’s particular birds of prey.
“We have a falcon watch group that meets up there at the Cadillac building,” said Morse-Harvey. “It is good just to get the education out to different people so that they understand how unique these birds are.”