High-flying hope

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- The climb to the top of the 10-story SCR (selective catalytic reduction) unit No. 2 at the New Madrid Power Plant is one that David Childers and Dennis Meier have made frequently since the falcons arrived 11 days ago. But this journey is different, filled with much more uncertainty.

It's June 17, release day, and neither Childers nor Meier know exactly what to expect.

After all, they're not biologists. Childers is a materials management supervisor at the plant, and Meier is a maintenance planner. They, like their four co-workers and fellow falcon project team members who wait anxiously with binoculars on the levee below, have only a couple of training sessions' worth of knowledge about the four peregrine falcon chicks they've taken turns feeding and monitoring over the past few days.

They know that excessive use of the pesticide DDT reduced the raptor that once thrived in cliff dwellings along the Mississippi River to an endangered species.

They also know the species is slowly recovering, having come off the endangered list in 1999 due largely to restoration projects like the one in which they've invested their time and energy -- coming to work early and on weekends and staying late -- over the past week.

They also share a hobbyist's passion for animals, and the will to see these birds thrive again.

That spirit has been contagious in the days since the falcons arrived. Many of the plant's 180-plus employees have begun demanding updates from team members at the start of crew meetings. When passing by, eyes shoot to the top of SCR unit No. 2, to casually check on the box and its residents. That's why this morning, the fingers of the team members on the levee aren't the only ones that are crossed.

Up on top of No. 2, Childers and Meier embody that anxiety.

"You just kind of hold your breath and hope nothing goes wrong," Childers later said.

Idea started in 1989

The idea of using power plants as a staging point for the recovery of these birds was introduced by Bob Anderson of Xcel Energy Inc. in Minnesota with the Raptor Resource Project in 1989. Power-plant peregrines now account for more than one-third of the bird's population in the Midwest. Anderson helped train the New Madrid team once they had bought the four chicks -- three males and one female -- from a breeder in Idaho.

Anderson's idea was to use the lofty structures of power plants, which usually overlook a body of water, to simulate the falcon's natural habitat. Other advantages include added protection from predators and a plentiful food supply in the flocks of pigeons, starlings and other smaller birds that nest in the plant's works. The latter is a payback to the plants in the form of free pest control. But right now, the New Madrid team is looking for deeper, richer and more immediate pay dirt.

Avoiding imprints

As they step out onto the railed catwalk that crowns the top story of the building, Childers and Meier carefully approach a large plywood box about 4 feet long and a little over 2 feet tall that sits at the edge and overlooks the Mississippi River. The box has been a sort of halfway house for the birds.

Inside is a median hide wall, behind which the chicks have been carefully kept out of view of the men who have daily opened the back door and left dead pheasants to nourish them. The reason is that human contact, especially at feeding times, could imprint the birds, making them instinctively dependent on humans and decreasing the chance the raptors will ever learn to survive on their own.

The only contact they were willing to risk was the time it took the team and representatives from the Missouri Department of Conservation to tag them and place them in the box.

Accordingly, today the birds are prodded to the other side of the hide wall, as Meier unscrews and removes the face of the box, essentially releasing the chicks into the wild.

The hope is that, in not having been allowed to really see their environment for the first 42 days of their lives, the chicks will immerse themselves in the new view of the Mississippi River. Then they'll learn to fly and hunt and eventually roost in a separate nest box that sits 27 stories up on a nearby smokestack.

Eventually the tagged falcons will leave the area to hunt and mate. With any luck, one of the males will bring his female back to make the power plant their permanent home.

Breathing lightly, the two are silent, exchanging only occasional, hopeful glances as the face of the box is removed. Quickly, quietly, Childers and Meier make their way down to join the rest of the team at the levee.

By this time, the four team members have been joined by about 26 other workers who've been imprinted by the fledgling chicks, sitting on truck tailgates, aiming their binoculars at the box's perch and sharing a fragile hope.

"After the release, we couldn't go back to the box for 48 hours," Childers recalled.

After a watchful day, no flight attempt is reported.

Taking flight

When Childers returns to the plant just after daybreak of the following morning, he is greeted at the levee by three night shift mechanics who are just getting off of work. They have good news. All three corroborate to having seen at least one of the birds flying around the plant already that morning.

It is the first report in a wave of good news on June 18.

Those reports are confirmed by office workers who crowded against the wall of windows in the plant office building, watching one of the males circling above. By noon, all four falcons have been sighted in similar shows.

In the 48 days that follow, the team will continue to monitor the birds and lay out dead pheasants until they are sure the falcons have learned to hunt for themselves.

Childers said that as of Monday the birds are doing well. They have yet to make their first kill, but Childers said they have been seen giving playful chase to pigeons. He said this indicates that they may be ready to hunt by the end of the week.

On June 21, a water leak caused the shrill scream of a safety relief valve that shook the works of the plant like the fly-by of a jet. When the scene settled, all four falcons were sighted flying as usual.

"We knew then that they were power plant birds," Childers said.

trehagen@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137