Local Peregrines Seen

Endangered species

Spokane area falconers have confirmed that at least two of the three peregrine falcons that hatched in town this spring are alive and flying the friendly skies of Spokane.

Dave Mann and Bill Mulvihill spotted one of the adults with two young peregrines near town last week. That leaves the possibility that the other adult is with the third young peregrine.

The adult peregrines are banded birds that were hatched from captive-raised parents and released to the wild as fledglings near the mouth of the Clark Fork River in the early 1990s.

The adults were released in consecutive years, but found each other and made their first nest under the Sunset Highway bridge over Hangman Creek last spring.

They raised three chicks, at least two of which were known to survive until migration time last fall.