RECOVERY AND RANGE EXPANSION IN A NORTH CENTRAL UTAH PEREGRINE FALCON POPULATION

Peregrine Falcon numbers in much of the Intermountain West rebounded after a decline during the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. However, recent literature regarding the species suggested that little, if any, growth was occurring in populous north central Utah, which once supported a robust Peregrine Falcon population. A concerted reintroduction effort during the 1980s resulted in establishment of nesting pairs of Peregrine Falcons on artificial towers where they were originally released as nestlings, but traditional nesting cliffs generally remained vacant. More recently, numerous Peregrine Falcon pairs have been observed nesting on cliffs both within and adjacent to their historical range in the region. I combined results from recent literature with numbers gleaned during this study to find that 45 Peregrine Falcon nesting territories are documented for the recovery era in north central Utah.