Volunteer with MDC to help Wood Duck populations in mid-Missouri March 12

Annual Wood Duck Nest Box Day at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area provides opportunity to work with experts and learn how to provide quality brood-rearing habitat.   

Register by March 9 for an opportunity to work with wildlife experts and learn how to provide quality brood-rearing habitat.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites volunteers to participate in the annual Wood Duck Nest Box Day at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area in Boone County.  

MDC hosts this event each year to clean, repair, and refill more than 100 nesting boxes with fresh wood chips. These nest boxes provide an enormous amount of quality brood-rearing areas for local wood ducks.  MDC relies on volunteers to keep these nest boxes in good condition and ready for use in the spring.  

This year's event will take place on Saturday, March 12, from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.  All volunteers and staff will meet at the Eagle Bluffs headquarters and then split into groups.  Lunch will be provided, but participants should bring snacks and water to have in the field.  Volunteers will need to have the ability to walk in knee- to waist-deep mud and water.  Sometimes the weather can be harsh, so volunteers should bring all necessary outerwear to work outdoors that day.   

MDC will provide some chest waders, but participants should bring their own if possible.   

What to bring:

• Appropriate outerwear for the weather
• Snacks and water
• Chest waders (if you own your own pair)
• Knee boots / hip boots
• Gloves

Register to attend this event by March  9 by calling MDC Wildlife Biologist Clayton Light at 573-445-3882, or email Clayton.Light@mdc.mo.gov

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Discover nature with webcam of falcons nesting

The birds are back! MDC, Ameren Missouri, and World Bird Sanctuary again partner on video feed of falcons nesting in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Like swallows returning to Capistrano, a pair of peregrine falcons has

again returned to a nesting box at Ameren Missouri's Sioux Energy Center in St. Louis. Through a cooperative effort, Ameren Missouri, the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), and the World Bird Sanctuary (WBS) are providing the public with a third year of their online “FalconCam” for a bird’s-eye view of the peregrine falcons raising their chicks.

Falcon nesting activities can be viewed via the FalconCam from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. (CDT) seven days a week on MDC’s website at mdc.mo.gov/node/16934, on Ameren’s website at AmerenMissouri.com/FalconWatch and on the WBS website at worldbirdsanctuary.org. WBS experts will offer periodic website commentary on what’s happening in the nest. The FalconCam will be available until nesting activity is complete and the young have left the nest.

Peregrine falcons have been seen at Sioux Energy Center since early 2011. Ameren staff installed the webcam at the nest site in January 2012. This year’s nesting activities were first spotted in February. Researchers at WBS and MDC have determined the male was hatched at Ameren Missouri's Labadie Energy Center in 2004. The female was hatched in Iowa in 2006.

According to WBS Director Jeff Meshach, the female laid her first egg this year on March 21. Last year, she laid a total of four eggs and all four chicks survived to leave the nest. She is expected to lay a total clutch of four to five eggs this year. Once the last egg is laid, the chicks will hatch in about 30 days. The male falcon will bring food to the female and take his turns incubating the eggs so the female can feed and preen her feathers.

“What we will see at Ameren’s Sioux Energy Center nest box is the fruit of tens of thousands of hours of labor to make the peregrine falcon a common sight again,” Meshach said. “There is always something to learn about any of our world's birds and animals. Our camera will provide a window into the nesting life of the world's fastest creature.”

According to MDC Director Bob Ziehmer, the cooperative FalconCam will help Missourians discover nature right in the nest of these amazing raptors. “The project illustrates the power of partnerships between private and public sector organizations to help conserve native wildlife,” Ziehmer said.

MDC’s Discover Nature Schools program for Missouri students in grades K-12 is providing related educational materials and activities to the more than 1,000 schools and 230,000 students involved. The program promotes conservation-related curriculum and hands-on learning experiences in nature to help students become life-long conservationists. Falcon-related activities and lesson plans were developed in partnership with the World Bird Sanctuary.

The FalconCam is also helping Ameren Missouri promote conservation.

“Ameren Missouri is proud to once again partner with the World Bird Sanctuary and the Missouri Department of Conservation in sponsoring the falcon nesting box and camera at our Sioux Energy Center,” Michael Moehn, senior vice president, Customer Operations, said. “We take seriously our role as responsible stewards of the environment. The peregrine project has helped reintroduce this raptor to the Mississippi Valley.”

Ameren Missouri and WBS also work together to provide a suitable habitat for songbirds. Nesting boxes have been attached to Ameren Missouri transmission towers and the company has spent more than $300,000 to install nesting boxes, monitor the boxes, and band the baby song birds.

Meshach of WBS added that the peregrine falcon has made an incredible comeback from the brink of extinction. A WBS reintroduction program in the 1980s and early 1990s has placed more than 80 captive-hatched peregrines back into Missouri's wild, and WBS continues to band chicks produced by up to six pairs of wild peregrine falcon parents in the greater St. Louis area each year.

Considered the world’s fastest animal, peregrine falcons have been clocked diving at 261 mph. For more information on peregrine falcons, visit MDC online at mdc.mo.gov/node/3848.

Five FalconCam chicks flourishing, banded for WBS research

Courtesy MDC

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Through a cooperative effort among the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), Ameren Missouri and the World Bird Sanctuary (WBS), tens-of-thousands of people from around Missouri and around the world have been getting a bird’s-eye view of peregrine falcons raising five chicks in a nest box at Ameren’s Sioux Energy Center in St. Louis. A camera mounted near the birds’ nest box provides video feeds to each organization’s website.

Ameren staff installed the webcam at the nest site in early January with this year’s nesting activities first spotted in the beginning of February. According to WBS Director Jeff Meshach, the female peregrine falcon laid five eggs in mid-March, which hatched in mid-April.

Meshach placed leg bands on the five falcon chicks on Monday, May 14. The process took about one hour and involved removing the chicks from the nest and taking them down from the nesting site to a trailer. WBS staff then drew blood samples and took weights and measurements of the chicks.  After the chicks were banded, Meshach returned them to the nest.

"The chicks appear healthy and very well fed,” said Meshach. “The average number of chicks per nest is below four, so it is fairly rare to have five chicks, especially two years in a row now."

He added that the chicks will continue to rapidly grow. “The two male chicks should be fledging the nest between 40 and 50 days old, on or about June 4,” he said. “The three females will fledge between 50 and 60 days of age, on or about June 15. Since the females are up to a third larger than the males, it takes them longer to develop.”

The leg bands are issued to permitted organizations through the U.S. Geological Survey.

“When the bands are observed, hopefully on healthy peregrines in the wild, they can provide information on migration routes, migration distances and distributions on breeding birds,” Meshach explained. “For instance, the mother of the chicks has a black-over-green band with the letter P within the black and the number 43 within the green. We were able to see the band because of the camera. We now know she was hatched at a power plant in Louisa County, Iowa, in 2005." 

Watch a brief video of the banding at youtube.com/watch?v=O1UxDzLh6pc.

The nest can be viewed live from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. (CT) seven days a week on MDC’s website at mdc.mo.gov/node/16934, on Ameren’s website at AmerenMissouri.com/FalconWatch and on the WBS website at worldbirdsanctuary.org.

Considered the world’s fastest animal, peregrine falcons have been clocked diving at 261 mph. For more information on peregrine falcons, visit MDC online at mdc.mo.gov.

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FalconCam shows three chicks in nest with two eggs left

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ST. LOUIS, Mo – The pair of peregrine falcons that are having their nesting activities shared with the world through a “FalconCam” at Ameren Missouri’s Sioux Energy Center in St. Louis recently hatched three chicks. Two eggs remain unhatched.

The FalconCam is a cooperative effort among the Missouri Department of Conservation, Ameren Missouri and the World Bird Sanctuary to help people discover nature through a bird’s-eye view of peregrine falcons raising chicks. A camera near the nest box provides video feeds to each organization’s website.

Watch the FalconCam at mdc.mo.gov/node/16934.

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Discover nature with peregrine falcon webcam

Courtesy MDC

MDC, Ameren Missouri and World Bird Sanctuary partner on video feeds of falcons nesting.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Through a cooperative effort among the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), Ameren Missouri and the World Bird Sanctuary (WBS), the public can get a bird’s-eye view of peregrine falcons raising chicks in a nest box at Ameren’s Sioux Energy Center in St. Louis. A camera near the birds’ nest box provides video feeds to each organization’s website. MDC and WBS staff are providing commentary on what is happening.

The nest can be viewed on MDC’s website atmdc.mo.gov/node/16934, on Ameren’s website atAmerenMissouri.com/FalconWatch and on the WBS website atworldbirdsanctuary.org. The camera is live for viewing from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. (CDT) seven days a week.

“This peregrine project will help Missourians discover nature right in the nest of these amazing raptors,” said MDC Director Bob Ziehmer. “The project illustrates the power of partnerships between private and public sector organizations to help conserve native wildlife.”

Ameren staff installed the webcam at the nest site in early January. Peregrine falcons have been seen at Sioux Energy center since early 2011, with this year’s nesting activities first spotted in the beginning of February. MDC and WBS researchers have been observing the birds’ activities and are posting observations on the websites as updates warrant.

According to WBS Director Jeff Meshach, the female peregrine falcon laid her first egg on Monday, March 12. She is expected to lay a total clutch of four to five eggs, with an additional egg laid every two to three days. The eggs are expected to hatch around April 12. The male falcon will bring food to the female and take his turns incubating the eggs so the female can feed and preen her feathers.

Meshach added that the peregrine falcon has made an incredible comeback from the brink of extinction. 

“What we will see at Ameren’s Sioux Energy Center nest box is the fruit of tens of thousands of hours of labor to make the peregrine falcon a common sight again,” Meshach said. “There is always something to learn about any of our world's birds and animals. Our camera will provide a window into the nesting life of the world's fastest creature, and I personally will find it hard to get any desk work done as I watch my favorite of the world's bird species.”

A WBS reintroduction program has placed more than 80 captive-hatched peregrines back into Missouri's wild, and WBS continues to band chicks produced by up to five pairs of wild peregrine falcon parents in the greater St. Louis area each year.

Ameren Missouri’s Senior Vice President of Customer Operations Richard Mark added that Ameren and WBS have worked on wildlife conservation projects for more than 25 years. Efforts include providing suitable habitat for songbirds through nesting boxes attached to Ameren Missouri transmission towers. The company has spent more than $300,000 to install nesting boxes and nesting-tower material.

“The peregrine falcon project has been one of the most exciting projects we’ve been involved in,” Mark said. “This year, via video, we’re able to share with visitors to our website the amazing lives these birds lead in raising their young. It’s part of our ongoing commitment to being responsible stewards of the environment.”

Considered the world’s fastest animal, peregrine falcons have been clocked diving at 261 mph. For more information on peregrine falcons, visit MDC online at mdc.mo.gov.