The recovery of the Peregrine Falcon is one of the greatest conservation stories in our nation's history. Peregrine Falcon populations plummeted in the United States due to the widespread use of DDT after WWII, and the species was completely extirpated from the eastern United States. A species that preys on small birds, peregrines absorbed the pesticide into their tissue and their eggs became too thin for incubation.
The article tells the story of restoration efforts in Tennessee and the first breeding Peregrine Falcons discovered in 1997, fifty years after the species disappeared from the state. But Tennessee's story is not complete. USFWS reports that North America recorded from 2000-3000 breeding pairs of Peregrines in 2012. Tennessee records currently confirm only one productive breeding eyrie, while neighboring states report from 10-23. In the early twentieth century, prior to the species decline, Tennessee had 25 confirmed eyries.
I would like to acknowledge those who contributed information to this article, especially fellow Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS) members , Harold Sharp and Jack Gentle for their historical observations and photographs, and the TOS publication, The Migrant. Greg Lavaty of Sugar Land, Texas, contributed beautiful flight photographs.
Links and Resources:
Tennessee Conservation Magazine
Greg Lavaty Photography and Bird Guiding
Tennessee Ornithological Society (TOS)
The Migrant--TOS' scientific publication
Within 30 minutes, he accomplished his first flight and was out of sight of viewers who waited a short distance away. The day prior to his release, he was fitted with leg bands which will aid in future identification and with a tail-mounted radio transmitter for tracking.
A fledged peregrine falcon remains with his parents for as long as two months, while he learns to hunt. High speed flyers, peregrines primarily feed on birds that they catch in flight or from a perch. But both the strategy and precision of this hunt must be learned.
The radio transmitter allows Dale and John Stokes to monitor Rocky’s progress for the next few weeks so they can assist if something goes wrong. Dale and John obtained Rocky from a falconer in Minnesota for a fee of $600 in order to release him in a process called hacking. The hacking box (see previous post) serves as an artificial nest and fledging home. Raptors are known to imprint on their fledging area and will generally return to that area when it is time to nest and raise their own young. 
Peregrines nest on high bluffs and it is hoped that after adolescent wandering for the next two years, Rocky will return to nest in the Lookout Mountain area.
It was falconers like Dale and John Stokes who alerted the world to the effects of DDT on our raptors and subsequently saved many species from extinction. Peregrine falcon populations plummeted from 1950 to 1970 due to DDT poisoning, but the hacking re-introductions that began in 1970 have restored species numbers. Peregrines were removed from the national endangered list in 1999 but remain on the state endangered list in Georgia and TN.
This is Rocky, a young male peregrine falcon, released this morning on the bluffs of Rock City, near Chattanooga, TN. The door to his hacking box, high on Lookout Mountain, was covered with a sheet and opened before dawn today. The sheet, carefully drawn open as daylight emerged, allows a gentle release so that the falcon can consider his freedom and his first attempts to fly. John and Dale then quietly await his fledging and monitor with telemetry.
Here Dale and John remove Rocky from his hacking box to secure leg bands and telemetry the day before release. More about Rocky and his stewards next post.
