By Maggie Gordon

GUILDERLAND — The fastest bird on the planet is making a comeback and a Guilderland biologist has played a part in the success story.

Barbara Loucks has been a wildlife biologist for more than 25 years. In that time, the peregrine falcon has bounced back from virtual extinction east of the Mississippi River, and has been removed from the New York State Endangered Species list.
"The peregrine falcon is a crow-sized bird. They’re the fastest birds on the planet," Loucks said. "They eat only other birds, small ones up to the size of a duck. It used to be called the duck hawk."
The bird reaches its highest speeds while it is hunting its prey. "They get close to 200 miles per hour in a dive on prey. They climb up really high, fold their wings, and they just drop," Loucks said. "They normally hit the prey with their feet and grab them out of the sky."

Loucks knows all about peregrine falcons. She has worked with them since 1978, and recently received the Major Achievement award from the New York City Audubon Society at the 21st Annual Awards for Distinguished Service to the Environmental Cause.

She graduated from the University of Connecticut with a bachelor’s of science degree before going on to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, where she earned her master’s degree in wildlife biology, in an era when there were few women in the field.
"I loved animals and being outside, and wanted to do something in the area of conservation of less-studied wildlife," she said.

That is exactly what she does as a research scientist and wildlife biologist. While there is no such thing as a typical day at her job, there are a few things she can count on doing from year to year.
"In the spring and the summer, I go to different parts of the state to do work on birds of prey," she said. "I might be climbing around a building or a bridge in New York City, or I might be up in the Adirondacks canoeing on a lake, looking at a cliff site, or hiking."
Often, her job includes hanging off bridges, or scaling buildings. This is because she said, "We monitor the population. Every year we do a count, and every year there are new sites to check. We put colored leg bands on the young and, when they’re seen somewhere else nesting, or found dead or injured, we get information on their movement.
"It’s hard," she said of the banding process. "It’s always very interesting though, because the birds are very aggressive. You have to wear a hardhat and protective eyewear. If you’re not wearing the proper clothing, they’ll tear your shirt or hit you with their talons.
"Their feet are very powerful. If they have their talons open, that’s when they’ll get to ripping your shirt — they’re specialized predators."

In the winter, her job is mostly office work, and planning work for the field season.

From hacking to nesting

Before the problem with pesticides, such as DDT, eliminated the peregrine falcon from the state of New York and surrounding areas, there were 350 pairs in the eastern portion of the United States. Dichoro Dphenyl Trichoroethane was outlawed in 1972, and when Loucks began working for the Department of Environmental Conservation in 1978, the organization was already working to bring back the species.
"There was a restoration program, in which we released captive-bred birds," Loucks said. The release of such birds was known as hacking, which went on from the mid-70’s until 1988. "Once these birds started breeding, we switched from hacking to protecting and managing the population as it recovered."

The falcons began breeding in New York City again in 1983, when nests were built on two bridges, and in the Adirondacks in 1985.

Now, Loucks tries to help the falcons have a safer place to nest. The birds, which usually mate for life, tend to find a nesting spot and stick with it. Sometimes these spots are on dangerous areas such as bridges and high-rise buildings.
"When a pair takes an interest in a site, if it’s a suitable site, we’ll put out a wooden nest tray if possible," she said. "We fill it with pea-sized gravel, which helps keep eggs from rolling off and being broken by sharp debris."

That’s when she gets up on a bridge, or climbs a building.

Restoring a species
"The most rewarding part of my job is knowing that I’ve played a small role in helping restore a species that was basically wiped out," Loucks said. "It’s good to know that despite the actions of man and the use of pesticides, we could reverse the damage that was done."

However rewarding her job might be, she said it is also frustrating that the projects take so long to complete.
"A lot of these projects take a lot of time and money and that’s challenging," Loucks said. "So is educating people, because everybody, not just the people who work in the field, I feel, has a responsibility to their environment and people need to be educated.
"Years ago, people would do things like routinely shoot hawks because they thought they were hurting their chickens. Every hawk was a bad hawk to people," she said. "There are also other situations that people need to be aware of. They need to think when they apply pesticides and herbicides to their lawns — it might affect birds higher up the food chain, like the peregrine."
Now, the New York City peregrine population is the largest urban population of peregrine anywhere in the world. "We’ve got roughly, in the New York City area, about 14 to 16 pairs, and some of them are not even a mile apart," she said "It’s a fairly dense population."
She concluded, "That’s the largest urban population in the world, which is incredible...We have it right here in New York State."