Cal Falcons

We had a brief flyby of a falcon yesterday. This is the time of year we'd expect to see birds looking for a home. There are still many empty spots in the Bay Area due to the ongoing Avian Influenza outbreak, but hopefully the Campanile will prove attractive to someone in the next couple of months

This is the first year since Cal Falcons started up that we haven't been celebrating Mother’s Day by watching Annie stuff bloody hunks of pigeon meat into the ravenous gullets of a pile of fluffy falcon chicks. But even though we're missing our beloved Annie this year, we wanted to honor all the moms out there (human and otherwise). Thank you for all you have done and all you will do!

To Annie: your patience, care, and tenderness were a beacon of joy and hope in our world.

We miss you.

Due to the use of DDT and other pesticides, there were fewer than 100 Peregrine Falcons in the lower 48 United States in the 1970s. Bald Eagles had dropped to fewer than 1000 individuals across the same area. Thanks to the effects of science-based environmental regulations such as the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), and Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), there are currently ~5,000 Peregrine Falcons and ~300,000 Bald Eagles in the lower 48!

The recovery of these two species is due almost entirely to legislation that is scheduled to be officially “sunset” by Executive Order dated 9 April 2025 (“Zero-based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy). The damage that this could cause is immeasurable and could take decades of concerted effort to recover from. In some cases, the damage could be irreversible, as many endangered species could very quickly go extinct without protections.

Environmental regulations protect not only plant and animal species but every person on the planet through clean air and water, and it is estimated that the environment provides approximately 150 trillion dollars of economic benefit globally every year for free (Jiang et al. 2021). Recovery of the Peregrine Falcon and Bald Eagle are just two of many stories that demonstrate the power of regulation in conserving the natural world that we all live in, depend on, and enjoy.