Litvínov, March 21, 2019 – Peregrine falcons are back! Nest boxes on the chimneys of the Litvínov chemical plant are occupied again after six months. Two pairs of peregrine falcons have successfully come back from the warmer regions to the foothills of the Ore Mountains to raise their young here. A total of 23 nestlings of this critically endangered species have been hatched in Litvínov since 2011 with the support of Unipetrol and non-profit organisation ALKA Wildlife. Besides the Litvínov plant, the falcons also seem to like the chimneys of the Kralupy refinery and the premises of Neratovice-based Spolana.
“Last year, we had two pairs of peregrine falcon nesting on the chimneys of our Litvínov site, which is quite a unique phenomenon in this country. Both couples hatched a total of five chicks. We are excited that they start nesting this year again and we are looking forward to the young ones soon,” said Pavel Sláma, director of the EKO unit of the Unipetrol Group.
There are two nest boxes located in the Litvínov plant. The first one is placed atop the chimney of the heating plant and the other one on the chimney of the steam cracker. Both are installed in the height of more than 100 metres because falcons look for as high places to nest as possible to be undisturbed and to have a great view.
Ornithologist Václav Beran of the ALKA Wildlife association checks the boxes each spring. And he did so in March, as well. “We cleaned the boxes, checked their stability and prepared new bird cams. We have recently climbed up to the boxes to confirm our ground observations. We have found fresh food remains and droppings, so the falcons are back and are getting ready for nesting. If everything goes as planned, they will soon lay three to four eggs and then share the incubation for about one month. We will climb up again at the end of April to band the fledglings.”
Peregrine falcons live up to twenty years and they come back to their favoured roosting places throughout their whole life. With a maximum speed of more than 350 km/h when swooping down, it is probably the fastest animal on the Earth. Peregrine falcons are a traditional bird species in the Czech territory. The strongest population of this raptor hunting pigeons, ducks and other smaller birds can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s when there were up to sixty couples living in the then Czechoslovakia. They were almost wiped out of the Czech landscape in the 1970s due to the excessive use of pesticides in agriculture. They re-emerged at the end of the 1980s. There were around 20 pairs in the Czech Republic at the turn of the century and thanks to the strict protection, there are about 80 peregrine falcon couples living in our territory today.