Chick is the Newest Addition to UMass Lowell Family of Falcons
05/28/2019
Contacts for media: Christine Gillette, 978-934-2209 or Christine_Gillette@uml.edu and Nancy Cicco, 978-934-4944 or Nancy_Cicco@uml.edu
Media Advisory
When: Tuesday, May 28, 11 a.m.
Where: Fox Hall, UMass Lowell East Campus, 100 Pawtucket St., Lowell. Contact UMass Lowell media relations for directions and parking information.
What: Wildlife officials will go out onto the roof of the tallest building in the city to examine and band a latest peregrine falcon chick, the latest addition to UMass Lowell’s real-life River Hawks.
The chick is one of more than 25 that have hatched in a nest box atop UMass Lowell’s Fox Hall over the past decade as part of the university’s effort to help restore the peregrine population. Once considered endangered, the federally protected birds remain a threatened species but are rebounding in the Commonwealth. UMass Lowell has “adopted” its falcons as River Hawks, the name of the university’s athletic teams.
A pair of adult falcons has called Fox Hall home since at least 2007 when they were discovered nesting out in the open on the building’s roof by UMass Lowell employees. Working with wildlife officials, UMass Lowell constructed the nest box to provide the birds with shelter from the elements. Each spring since, at least one chick has been hatched in the nest box, which is visible via a webcam that can be accessed at www.uml.edu/falcons.
State wildlife experts will retrieve the chick, assess its overall health and determine its gender before fitting the bird with an ID band so the falcon can be tracked after it leaves the nest in the coming weeks. Birds hatched at UMass Lowell have gone on to establish other nests around the Northeast, from the Merrimack Valley, central Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Providence, R.I., and Cape May, N.J.