Last updated: August 4, 2021
Article
2021 a Fantastic Year for Falcons at Pinnacles National Park
NPS / Gavin Emmons
July 2021 - For the last six years, raptor monitoring staff and volunteers at Pinnacles National Park often celebrated new milestones for the park’s returning peregrine falcons. But at the same time, they were recording below-average numbers of falcon fledglings (young that successfully leave their nests) overall. Last year, they found a total of 22 fledglings, up from 21 in 2019. So this year, with the breeding season concluded, the monitoring team is especially thrilled to report a total of 40 falcon fledglings! That number has been matched once and surpassed only twice in the past 35 years of the monitoring program, most recently in 2013.
Of the nine prairie falcon pairs and four peregrine pairs that nested, all but one prairie falcon pair fledged young. The eight successful prairie falcon pairs produced 31 fledglings. That’s above the monitoring program average of about 26. The four peregrine pairs produced nine fledglings, a new record high since a pair first reappeared in the park in 2004.
NPS / Gavin Emmons
Earlier this season, biologists were intrigued to find that peregrine and prairie falcon pairs were nesting close together at two different sites. It was a nice contrast to some previous years when the species appeared to compete for territories rather than coexist nearby. Thus it was even nicer to see that it’s possible for proximate peregrine and prairie falcon pairs to not only coexist, but to thrive. Each of the pairs were among those that succeeded in fledging their young this year.
The good news does not end there. The monitoring team recently confirmed that a golden eagle pair has fledged one eaglet. Their second eaglet has probably also fledged by now given that it was fully feathered and only days away from fledging during the team’s last visit. The monitoring crew also documented red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, American kestrels, Cooper's hawks, long-eared owls, great horned owls, and barn owls nesting successfully in the park. In all, they confirmed 35 nests belonging to 10 raptor species this year.
Could the 2022 raptor season get any better? There’s only one way to find out!
For more information
- Pinnacles Raptor Advisories and Raptors webpages
- San Francisco Bay Area Network Falcon Monitoring webpage
- Pacific Coast Science & Learning Center Prairie & Peregrine Falcons webpage
- Wildlife Biologist Gavin Emmons