Northern birders who helped reintroduce peregrine falcon call comeback 'fantastic'

A bird that was once extinct in Sudbury and other parts of northern Ontario could soon be off the endangered species list.

A federal committee is recommending the peregrine falcon be seen as a self-supporting species for the first time in 40 years.

"We don't get too many good news stories about birds at risk, so this is fantastic news for sure," says Bruce Murphy, the head of research and education at the Hilliardton Marsh in the Temiskamingdistrict.

"I think we were lucky with the peregrines."

• Peregrine falcon no longer a threatened species after four decades

The falcons got a lot of help from community volunteers like Murphy, who helped reintroduce the birds in Temagami in the early 1990s and Chris Blomme, a biologist at Laurentian University, who led Project Peregrine in the Sudbury area.

Blomme says it's a great example of how people can fix ecological mistakes of the past.

"But there are other things that happen over time, particularly habitat loss and our human population is increasing, we're infiltrating all kinds of different kinds habitats and influencing all kinds of different populations of wildlife," he said.

"So we always worry about the net effects of that over time."

In the 1990s, Blomme and a team of 70 volunteers released 71 young falcons at Laurentian University and in KillarneyProvincial Park.

He says they never expected it to go this well.

"To actually have them nesting within the immediate Sudbury was a pleasant surprise to a number of the people involved with the project," Blommesaid.

Even if the peregrine falcon is removed from the endangered list, Blommesays its nesting sites will still remain protected under provincial wildlife laws.

Some of those Sudbury falcons have been nesting on Vale property in recent years, preventing the mining company from tearing down an abandoned ore plant.

Vale reports that the falcons have sincemoved on and the decommissioning of that abandoned building has begun.