Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 15, 1992 TAG: 9201150167
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ED SHAMY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FALCONS TO ROOST ON DOMINION TOWER
The top of the Dominion Tower offers a bird's-eye view of the city that sprawls over the valley floor.Birds' eyes soon will take in the vista.
Five peregrine falcons will be raised on, and released from, the building this year.
Introduction of the falcons, pushed to the brink of extinction in the early 1960s by the now-banned pesticide DDT, was announced Tuesday.
Downtown Roanoke Inc. - a merchants and business group - will contribute $8,000 to the project. Mitchell Byrd, a biology professor at the College of William and Mary, has committed $15,000 of a peregrine fund he administers that is gathered from many sources.
Rupert Cutler, who heads the Explore Project, hailed the cooperative venture to bring the threatened birds of prey to Roanoke as "the return of nature to the city."
Reg Hutcherson, who has coordinated Downtown Roanoke's role in the project, said the falcon release weds tourism, the environment and the prosperity of Roanoke's central business district.
Faison Associates, which owns the Dominion Tower, and Mill Mountain Zoo also are contributing time and expertise.
The month-old chicks will be placed in a box near the top of the building in late May. They'll be hand-fed and watched by two attendants and as many as 10 volunteers.
The falcons should be able to fly in about six weeks.
The theory is that by releasing them at a young age and with plenty of easily available food, they will imprint with the location and consider it forever their home.
Peregrine falcons, which can dive at speeds of up to 275 mph, feed on other birds and have been successfully introduced to Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Boston, Denver, Philadelphia, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis and Norfolk.
Cliff-dwellers, the birds adapt well to cities, and Roanoke's ample population of pigeons and starlings is expected to provide plenty of prey, said Byrd.
Cutler said the young birds are likely to migrate from Roanoke next fall and may not immediately return.
But within two years, when they are prepared to breed, the birds will consider Roanoke home and may return to nest.
Since 1978, the state has been reintroducing peregrine falcons to the Virginia wild. Some have remained; others now are nesting in nearby states.