Greetings, I had received a report of a falcons stooping on a Red-tail hawk near Goose Island cliff south of La Crosse, WI. On Saturday I gave a presentation in La Crosse then set off to check out the falcon report. As I drove near the cliff, I could see the cliff owner standing in his yard looking up towards the Goose Island cliff. He has not seen falcons.


I then checked cliffs on the WI side of the river and crossed over at the Lansing, IA bridge. Made my way to down below Dead Cow Bluff and was pleased to see an adult tiercel falcon perched on a dead snag near the cliff mounted nest box. All looks well at this site.

I then drove to the Lansing power plant cliff and hiked to the area directly down below the cliff face. I was pleased to see an adult tiercel falcon perched on the new cliff nest box. We mounted this nest box a few years ago in an attempt to attract the nesting falcons away from their favored ledge where each and every time they have attempted to breed on this ledge the eggs/young were eaten by raccoons. It's looking promising for this pair to be productive since raccoons can't access this nest box.

Things look good for the nesting falcons at the RRP nest box on the Agri-bunge stack house in Mc Gregor, IA.

The cliff nesting pair at Leo's Bluff near Waukon Junction, IA are probably on eggs.

The adult falcons at Larson's Bluff near Lynxville, WI are looking like they will use the main cliff this year. With the nesting falcons at the Dairyland Power Genoa plant and the other nest sites mentioned above, we have six pairs of nesting falcons in a relatively small area of the Mississippi River.

John and I will be checking all of the cliffs near Petosi, WI and Balltown, IA in a helicopter this next week. We will also check for occupancy at the cliffs in pool 13 upstream of Clinton, IA. All of these cliffs do not have roads nearby and to survey by boat would take days. Look for a report of cliff assessment and GPS coordinates later this next week.