KDFWR banded three chicks at the Mill Creek Generating Station
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) – Three young peregrine falcons will soon spread their wings, thanks in part to Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company’s longstanding partnership with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR).
After the return earlier this spring of Diana and Perry, the resident peregrine falcons at LG&E’s Mill Creek Generating Station, KDFWR recently banded three chicks that hatched this year. The two males and one female now sport small metal tags that will help KDFWR track them over their lifetimes.
“The identification bands allow us to monitor the population size of peregrine falcons in Kentucky. It’s a pretty small population size still, so we want to keep a close eye on it and make sure it doesn’t dip,” said avian biologist Mallory Miles with the Nongame Branch of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.
“It seems like a lot of our Kentucky birds are staying relatively close to their natal sites in Kentucky, but we have had some outliers. We’ve had birds go to Nebraska. A lot of birds go to Ohio, Illinois and Indiana,” added Miles.
More than 200 falcons have been banded at LG&E and KU facilities since 1999, including this year’s three chicks at Mill Creek, as well as two at KU’s Ghent Generating Station. It’s become an important tradition for employees, who take pride in being part of the environmental efforts to protect wildlife around the utilities’ power plants and equipment.
“We have employees here who watch the Mill Creek Falcon Camera and really love Diana and Perry and the work LG&E and KU are doing to help the population out,” said LG&E Environmental Coordinator II Amber Burdin. “We have people that basically live here. You have to make power 24/7, so just having Perry and Diana here on site gives them something else to make them feel at home.”
Since the 1990s, there have been tremendous efforts to reestablish Kentucky’s peregrine falcon population after the widespread use of the pesticide DDT caused a major decline during the first half of the century. KDFWR has placed nest boxes at many locations throughout the state, including at LG&E and KU's Trimble County, Mill Creek, Ghent and Cane Run generating stations. The power plants’ crevices and alcoves provide similar features to natural nesting locations such as mountain cliffs and ledges, as well as ample food supply.
After chicks hatch in the spring, KDFWR bands them to monitor the survival and productivity of peregrine falcons. When someone reports seeing a falcon with a leg band to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Bird Banding Laboratory or the Midwest Peregrine Society, the location of the bird can be tracked. This allows KDFWR to see where Kentucky’s falcons go after fledging and where birds from out of state originated.
The three chicks at Mill Creek were about 21 days old when banded on May 19. KDFWR anticipated they had about another two weeks of growing to do, before learning to fly and leaving the nesting box in the late spring.
Mill Creek is proud to host LG&E and KU’s falcon cam, allowing the community to watch the chicks on their journey from eggs to falcons leaving the nest. You can tune in live each season at lge-ku.com/falcon.
###
Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company, part of the PPL Corporation (NYSE: PPL) and its companies, are regulated utilities that serve nearly 1.4 million customers and have consistently ranked among the best companies for customer service in the United States. LG&E serves 336,000 natural gas and 443,000 electric customers in Louisville and 16 surrounding counties. KU serves 581,000 customers in 77 Kentucky counties and 28,000 in five counties in Virginia. More information is available at www.lge-ku.com and www.pplweb.com.
