This was posted on Birdchat. It's probably in Friday's Post. WASHINGTON (AP) - The world's fastest bird, once driven to the brink of extinction in the U.S. by now-banned pesticides, is soaring off the endangered species list. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt planned to remove the peregrine falcon from the endangered list Friday in a ceremony at a Boise, Idaho, center for breeding birds of prey. At the bird's low point in 1970, only 39 breeding pairs existed in the continental U.S. - all west of the Mississippi, said Jeff Cilek of The Peregrine Fund. Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates more than 1,650 breeding pairs of peregrines live in North America. Good Birding! Tyler Bell mailto:bell@acnatsci.org California, MD http://www.audubon.org/chapter/md/smas/