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Nassau University Medical Center’s newest resident

Peregrine falcon hatches at nesting site at East Meadow hospital

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If you visited the Grand Canyon, you probably would not be surprised to find a peregrine falcon nesting 2,000 feet above the ground on one of the cliff ledges. However, you might not know that these birds of prey also call major metropolitan and suburban areas home — including the 17th floor of Nassau University Medical Center.

Since 1997, more than 60 falcons have hatched at the East Meadow hospital. Two falcons, dubbed Mr. and Mrs. Meadowbrook, welcomed a chick named Mickey into the world this spring.

In the 1970s, the peregrine falcon was put on endangered species lists due to an increased use of harmful pesticides and chemicals around the country, which prevented the falcons from hatching healthily. In New York, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for protecting and restoring the peregrine falcon population.

Christopher Nadareski, a wildlife biologist and volunteer cooperator with the NYSDEC, has spent the last 30 years observing falcons across the state, placing bands on the birds so they can be tracked and accounted for. While federal government officials took the peregrine falcon off their endangered species list in 1999, Nadareski noted that they are still an endangered species in New York.

NUMC was one of the first places on Long Island where peregrine falcons were found nesting because it is one of the tallest buildings in the region, according to Shelley Lotenberg, a hospital spokeswoman. In metropolitan areas, falcons choose nesting locations on large bridges and towers, Nadareski said, which imitate their natural habitat.

Nadareski goes back every spring not only to NUMC, but also to all nesting sites on Long Island and southeastern New York to check if the adult falcons are still nesting there and if they laid eggs that particular season. He then returns again to band the chicks when they are three weeks old.

In the wild, the female falcon will make a depression in a chosen cliff and lay the eggs inside. At nesting sites in more urban areas, Nadareski explained, the female cannot make indents on a bridge or building; therefore, the eggs become vulnerable to rolling off the edge of the structure. At these locations, Nadareski will build a nest box — just like he did 19 years ago for the falcons of NUMC.

This past spring, Mrs. Meadowbrook laid five eggs, Lotenberg said. On May 23, Nadareski climbed out onto the 17th floor window ledge and banded the single baby chick that hatched at NUMC this year.

“[It] isn’t always a terrible thing,” Nadareski said of the single hatching. “Sometimes it means more food for the one chick.”

Nadareski collected the four unhatched eggs to hand them over to the NYSDEC Wild Life Pathology Unit for further examination.

In 2015, 13 peregrine falcons hatched at five nesting locations in both Nassau and Suffolk counties. Lotenberg said NUMC typically welcomes two or three chicks to their nesting site annually. The young birds leave the hospital several months after they’ve hatched, she added, as they migrate to areas like New York City once they learn to fly.

Nadareski works with the facilities where the falcons nest — as well as local communities — to foster awareness of and cooperation around the nesting sites. As a self-proclaimed “peregrine falcon social worker,” Nadareski said he gets just as excited going out and banding these birds as he did three decades ago.

“Without the cooperation of these facilities,” he continued, “we wouldn’t have the success with the falcons that we have today.”