A digest of important news from sources selected by our local
editors. Delivered weekday mornings. Lil the peregrine falcon is
doing anything but laying an egg for researchers at the
University of California, Santa Cruz. As part of a project by
UCSC’s Predatory Bird Research Project, the soon-to-be mother
falcon is actually sitting atop four eggs in a nest high up on
the San Francisco headquarters of Pacific Gas & Electric Co.
Lil’s babies may start hatching as soon as Wednesday, according
to Glenn Stewart, the group’s director. Baby falcons are called
“eyasses.” They are covered with white down when born, replaced
in three to five weeks with feathers. Progress of the falcons’
births can be followed online via a webcam at www.scpbrg.org.
UCSC researchers reintroduced peregrine falcons to the wild
after the species was nearly wiped out four decades ago by the
effects of the agricultural pesticide DDT, now banned in the
United States. “PG&E has been a terrific host to the birds since
we established the first ne