Raptor Breeding Season Report For Pinnacles National Monument – 2008
Emmons G. 2009. Raptor Breeding Season Report For Pinnacles National Monument – 2008. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/SFAN/NRTR—2009/192. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Pinnacles National Monument (PINN) provides a diverse habitat for numerous cliff-nesting raptors, including prairie falcons (Falco mexicanus), peregrine falcons (F. peregrinus) and golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), as well as a spectacular array of summits and cliff-wall routes for rock-climbers. This monitoring effort was established to determine long-term population trends of nesting prairie falcons and other raptors. The effort grew out of a need to reduce potential disturbance that climbers and off-trail hikers may have on cliff-nesting raptors. This report summarizes the results from the 2008 breeding season and represents the 22nd year of monitoring at the monument. The 2008 breeding season represented the 2nd least productive year for prairie falcon nesting in the past 22 years. Twelve territorial falcon pairs were documented this year with 5 pairs actively nesting. Twelve prairie falcons hatched, with 12 possible fledglings confirmed. Breeding productivity during the 2008 breeding season was also low for other raptor species nesting in the monument, with 18 nests representing 9 raptor species. 2008 marked the 5th year that captive-bred California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) were active and free-flying at PINN, with up to 37 condors in the area.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Emmons, Gavin
- Date of Issue
- 2009-03-24
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NRSS , PINN , SFAN
- Keywords
- Abundance (Biodiversity), Annual Report, Breeding, climbing, Distribution (Biodiversity), Ecology, human-raptor interactions, Monitoring, Natural Resource Management, Observations, Phenology, prairie falcons, Presence (Biodiversity), Raptor, Recreation, Wildlife, wildlife impacts