By Woodie Walker
Photos by Jeff Hodges
March is a wet, muddy month for those who live on the ground. Falcons, however, don’t have that problem. They hunt, play, and fall in love on the wing.
What a way to make a living!
Since 2021, two of Virginia’s most prolific Peregrine Falcons have been living under the Downing Bridge in Tappahannock. According to Bryan Watts, director of The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) in Williamsburg, the Tappahannock Peregrines are champions at making babies.
In March, visitors to the region can catch a special preview of the upcoming 2025 nesting season: Peregrine Falcons doing the intricate dance that makes up their courtship behavior. Peregrines are the world’s fastest animal, reaching speeds of around 200 miles per hour in a hunting dive. When courting, they circle around each other in flight, diving, bowing, and showing their mate how strong and healthy they are. Sometimes, the male offers food to the female.
Tappahannock-area residents often see the falcons while driving on the bridge. The best views, however, are from below, by boat. Of course, it’s still cold outside in March, and the river water is cold, too, so safety precautions are mandatory. Still, experienced boaters can safely access the area below the bridge in March if the wind and the tide are reasonable. Paddlers with appropriate gear can make the trip, too.
Birding for the Tappahannock Falcons continues throughout the year. While Peregrines in other regions often migrate, the Downing Bridge pair are year-round residents.
The nearest boat launch for the trailered power craft is just upstream of the bridge, at June Parker Marina. Rappahannock Roundstern offers chartered tours out of the marina, and their staff is very knowledgeable about local history and wildlife. There are launch sites for paddlers at the end of Prince Street and Duke Street in Tappahannock. The nest box for the falcons is halfway across the river, on the Tappahannock side of the channel, where the falcons are most often visible. It’s about 300 yards from the shore to the channel.
Biologists are hoping for another bumper year from the Tappahannock Falcons in 2025. According to Watts, the pair successfully raised five young, called eyases, in 2021. They raised three more in 2022. In 2023, they produced five eyases again, the only pair to do so in all of Virginia.
Their success says a lot about the overall good health of the ecosystem around the Downing Bridge, which connects Tappahannock and the Middle Peninsula to the Northern Neck and Warsaw. The Northern Neck side of the bridge is surrounded by the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge, which supports an abundant food source for top-end predators like falcons.
The Cornell Lab website explains that “peregrine” means “wanderer” or “pilgrim,” and Peregrine Falcons occur all over the world. Unfortunately, they were extirpated from Virginia and the entire East Coast by the 1970s, the result of the same DDT poisoning that affected Bald Eagles and Ospreys. They were put on the Endangered Species List, and conservationists successfully fought to eliminate DDT’s use as a pesticide. By 1999, the Peregrine population had recovered enough to be de-listed.
For many years, biologists like Watts, in partnership with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, have translocated fledgling eyases from sites like the Downing Bridge to suitable habitat in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The process is called hacking and has documented success. In 1981, there was only a single breeding pair of Peregrines in Virginia. There are about three dozen breeding pairs in Virginia today, many at coastal sites like the Downing Bridge.
A few years ago, there was another breeding pair at the Norris Bridge, at the mouth of the Rappahannock River, but when the bridge was repainted, the nest box was moved. The falcons left and have yet to return. Birders have reported sightings of falcons at the James Madison Bridge at Port Royal, but Watts said there hasn’t been nesting activity there, yet.
Last year, the Tappahannock falcons set another record, although the story ends sadly. The pair was present throughout Spring 2024, said Watts, and the female laid six eggs. It was the largest clutch of Peregrine eggs ever recorded in the state. Only two of those eggs hatched, however, and none of the young survived. It was an important lesson that, even when the parents are healthy and there is plenty of food, sometimes things go wrong in nature.
That’s why it is so important to protect the things we can, to give the world’s fastest animal a fighting chance to endure in an ever-changing world.
“Restoration of falcons in Virginia has been a long road,” Watts said. “As you know, we lost the species by the mid-1960s. We began releasing birds back into the state in 1978. The population has now reached 35 breeding pairs, which is more than we supported historically. It has been a rewarding effort and a great success story.”
For now, the Tappahannock Peregrines remain a priceless joy for those who appreciate their speed, their beauty, and their story of survival.
Woodie Walker is the owner of Rappahannock Adventures, offering guided eco-tours and angling adventures on the Middle Peninsula.