Viewers watch young falcons nesting at Mill Creek power plant on live web cam
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – With a successful peregrine falcon nesting season coming to an end, viewers watched live while two young falcons prepared to leave their nest for the final time. Falcons are known for swooping and diving more than 200 miles per hour.
Thanks to the real-time falcon web cam installed by Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, and in partnership with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, viewers watched these falcons transform from egg, to awkward, cotton-ball shaped chicks, and finally to majestic falcons inside the nesting box about 300 feet above ground at the Mill Creek power plant.
The nesting box at Mill Creek is one of five installed at the utilities’ power plants in partnership with KDFWR. Seven falcons, in total, successfully hatched and are expected to make their way into the world from the Ghent, Trimble County, E.W. Brown and Mill Creek power plants. This year’s nesting box at the Cane Run plant was otherwise occupied by friends from the North: a pair of Canada geese.
Falcons typically learn to fly about 40-45 days after hatching. To date, 163 peregrine falcons have successfully fledged from LG&E and KU power plants.
Falcons… and sheep?
Falcons are not the only wildlife who make these power plants home, and this is not the utilities’ only live wildlife web cam. This spring, LG&E and KU introduced a live-streaming sheep cam where viewers can tune in and watch dozens of sheep at the utilities’ E.W. Brown universal solar array in Mercer County.
Thanks to a partnership with nearby Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, the flock of sheep – which now includes Shetland, Katadhin and a healthy generation of lambs born just this spring – were originally added in 2020 to help manage vegetation around the solar panels on a portion of the 50-acre solar site.
After spending the winter months in the safety and warmth of shelter at Shaker Village, the newly expanded flock was transferred back to the solar site in March. With so much interest last year in the sheep and their role at the solar array, the utilities launched the new online camera to give viewers an inside look while the sheep return to work “mowing” grass during the spring and summer months.
Visit lge-ku.com/sustainability to learn more about these partnerships and LG&E and KU’s other sustainable initiatives.
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Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) family of companies, are regulated utilities that serve more than 1.3 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 332,000 natural gas and 425,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 564,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and five counties in Virginia. More information is available at www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.
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