by Laurie Brown
The Missouri Department of Conservation has set up several nesting boxes on tall buildings around Kansas City to give the area's endangered Peregrine Falcons a safe place to nest. You can keep an eye on one of them at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/kansas-city-plaza-falcon-cam The nest has three or four eggs (and one watchful bird) in it now and we can expect the little ones to show themselves in mid-May.
Ledges on cliffs and bluffs were the original nesting sites of peregrine falcons. They can dive at more than 200 mph when full grown, plucking birds from the sky or rodents from the ground for food. The high-flying raptors are still endangered in Missouri, but restoration programs like the MDC's nest boxes are helping them recover. The recovery program began in Kansas City in 1991.
