The MTA announced its newest additions today: Three new sets of peregrine falcon chicks for a total of nine chicks. These fluffy winged predators-in-training are at the Verrazano-Narrows, Marine Parkway and Throgs Neck Bridges. Here are the details:
- "2 girls hatched atop the 693-foot Brooklyn tower at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Verrazano General Manager Daniel DeCrescenzo said they were named Rose in honor of Staten Island’s Rosebank neighborhood and Sunset for the neighborhood in Brooklyn.
- 3 boys born 360-feet atop the Bronx tower at the Throgs Neck Bridge were named Locust, Edgewater and Bayside by Throgs Neck employees in honor of the Bronx and Queens communities near that bridge, according to General Manager Ed Wallace.
- Four chicks were also born inside a World War II gun turret 215-feet up on the Rockaway tower of the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge. Rockaway Maintenance Superintendent Michael Finlay said Marine Parkway also chose names with meaning to the communities around the bridge: Rocky for the Rockaways, Floyd for nearby Floyd Bennett field, Marine (for the bridge) and Breezy for Breezy Point.
Throgs Neck Maintenance Superintendent Carlton Cyrus said, “It doesn’t cost the Authority anything to have the falcons nest here. We just give them some peace and quiet and during nesting season make sure that our contractors and maintenance workers don’t disturb them. This allows the chicks to hatch and gives them a greater opportunity for survival.”
According to the MTA, Cyrus, a 26-year MTA Bridges & Tunnel vet, "has been involved with nesting falcons at the Verrazano-Narrows, Marine Parkway and Throgs Neck Bridges since 1997." The falcons are banded when their talons grow to adult sizes, about three weeks after their birth (the NYC Department of Environmental Protection's wildlife specialist Chris Nadareski does the banding). Here's video of the Throgs Neck crew getting banded:
