Nesting Comeback Raptors

     As most of us know, bald eagles, peregrine falcons and ospreys were endangered several years ago.  But the numbers of each of these species have greatly increased in North America, including here in the Mid-Atlantic States, in recent years because of a ban on using DDT in the United States, laws protecting raptors, education about these three kinds of magnificent birds of prey and the interest many Americans have shown toward these stately birds.  All these diurnal raptors made a remarkable comeback and now regularly and commonly nest in much of North America, including the Middle Atlantic States.
     It's amazing and exciting where pairs of these feathered, majestic bits of wilderness nest, often in the midst of human-made habitats and activities.  Bald eagles today raise young in trees and on power towers, sometimes near roads and houses, and in fields, as well as along the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers, and large, built impoundments.  There they catch fish, muskrats, ducks and other kinds of wildlife, plus scavenge dead animals and steal prey from hawks, particularly fish from ospreys.
     Peregrines hatch offspring on ledges of tall buildings in big cities and under large bridges over rivers.  These falcons nest in Wilmington, Delaware, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Allentown and Reading, Pennsylvania and Baltimore Maryland, to name a few cities in the Mid-Atlantic States.   They also rear chicks under bridges, including the pair under the Route 462 Bridge over the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, and the falcon pairs that raise babies under Philadelphia bridges. 
     Rock pigeons, mourning doves and starlings, favorite prey of peregrines, also live and nest in cities and under bridges.  Peregrines are power flyers, diving on and knocking flying prey from the air, which they catch in mid-air before the stunned or dead prey hits the ground.
     Ospreys rear youngsters on buoys, docks, and platforms especially made and erected in the water of estuaries, salt channels and large bodies of fresh water for them to nest on.  But some ospreys still hatch babies in their traditional treetop sites.  Ospreys plunge into larger bodies of water feet first and use their long, curved talons to catch fish that are about a foot long.  Sometimes, bald eagles steal fish from ospreys. 
     More pairs of ospreys hatch youngsters along the Chesapeake Bay then anywhere else in North America.  They are one of the bay's icons, including and especially at St. Michael's, Maryland, and easily seen by anyone who looks for them.
     I've seen all these elegant birds of prey in the flesh, whether they are soaring, perched or catching prey.  But it's also thrilling to see them at home in their nurseries, via 24/7 live cameras and our home computer screen.  Seeing these spectacular birds on their cradles is like being there, except the birds don't see the human audience and go about their business of incubating and feeding their offspring as if people were not there.
     In the past few years, I've been privileged to watch a pair of bald eagles raising young on their nest near Lake Marburg in southern York County, Pennsylvania, a pair of peregrines incubating and feeding babies on a ledge on a building in Baltimore and a pair of ospreys rearing offspring on a platform in a backwater off Chesapeake Bay near Kent Island, Maryland.  The eagles begin courting in January, the peregrines in February, and the ospreys by the end of March, after their migration north from farther south in winter.  Young eagles and peregrines fledge their cradles by June and the juvenile ospreys do so in July.  All those young have time to develop their hunting skills to be able to survive coming migrations and winter.  But some individuals of each kind fail to do so.
     Bald eagles, peregrine falcons and ospreys are large, diurnal raptors that bring wildness to human-made habitats in the Middle Atlantic States, as elsewhere in North America.  These days they are readily seen around civilization in ever-increasing numbers, if one knows when and where to look.  And people can see their daily nesting activities up-close by viewing computer screens.  Never before have people been able to view these majestic birds, their life cycles and daily habits so well.