Hello,

I was wondering if the birders of MDOsprey might be able to help me with the following inquiry.

I work at Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), the Zoo's nonprofit support organization, and in 2002 I wrote a story for FONZ's magazine, ZooGoer, about an effort underway at the time to return peregrine falcons to cliffs in the central Appalachians by taking eyasses hatched in nests on bridges and lighthouses in MD and VA and hacking them at historic eyries at Harpers Ferry and in Shenandoah Nat'l Park. In the article I reported that peregrines had thus far failed to reoccupy most of their historic nest sites in the central Apps and that at the time no pairs were known to nest on cliffs in MD, VA, or PA.

Happily, in the intervening years peregrines have indeed reoccupied historic cliff nests in PA (two sites along the Susquehanna near Wilkes-Barre and Montgomery) and VA (Stony Man Mtn. in Shenandoah). With these new developments I'm considering revisiting the story, and I'm curious if anyone is aware of any cliff-nesting peregrines in MD. I have not heard any reports of falcons on MD cliffs, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. To my knowledge, MD is now one of the few states in the peregrine's historic range in the East that doesn't have at least one cliff-nesting pair.

If you have any knowledge of peregrine sightings on MD cliffs, you can contact me off-list at <mailto:[log in to unmask]>. I appreciate your time.

Thanks,

Matt Olear
Laurel, Md.
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