Determining Local and Broad-scale Movements of Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus) from New Hampshire
Since 2013, NHA conservation biologists have been collaborating with colleagues from BioDiversity Research Institute (BRI) and Stantec Consulting Services (Stantec) in a multi-year satellite telemetry project to better understand both local and broad-scale movement patterns of PEFAs nesting in rural settings near Iberdrola’s Groton Wind Farm located in Groton, NH
(Stantec Consulting et al. 2016). We developed a method which captures flighted adults instead of pre-fledged juveniles, resulting in a much lower mortality rate and a much improved chance of generating multiple years of location data. Although recently used in Canada (LaPointe et al. 2013) and Russia (Sokolov et al. 2014), the techniques we are using to catch and fit transmitters on falcons at their nest sites has not been used previously on Peregrines anywhere in the eastern U.S. While we have developed a methodology that is effective for capturing adult females with eggs or nestlings, we are still refining our methods to efficiently capture adult males at nest sites.