A window pane and a dead pigeon are all that separate John Faherty from a pair of eyasses – baby peregrine falcons – perched on a ledge outside the 11th floor of the Mercantile Building on Walnut Street.
Inside, the library is mostly quiet. Portraits of past presidents greet guests, sculptures watch over rows of books. The stillness breaks only when mother Juliet soars past the window, squawking. It’s Faherty’s cue to leave and let the babies eat in peace.
“When there’s babies, they just start circling around, and I like to think it’s because I’m their favorite person,” said Faherty, executive director of the Mercantile Library. “I’m fairly certain I’m their least favorite person. They’re just always flying, and in every picture, they are glaring at you.”
Six years ago, he and staff noticed falcons nesting in the abandoned building next door. Fascinated, they took pictures of the birds and shared them online. That drew the attention of Raptor, Inc., a nonprofit volunteer group dedicated to the conservation of birds. The organization banded the birds to monitor their population and movements and provided the library with a nesting box. By 2021, the birds had moved next door. And Faherty’s obsession began in earnest.
Since then, the falcons have become the library’s unofficial mascot, and Faherty their self-proclaimed superfan. He knows to pacify them by pulling the blinds down. His phone storage is nearly full from snapping pictures during his shifts.
“I sit here and watch birds for about six of the eight hours,” Faherty said, laughing. “That’s when I’m busy. Otherwise, it’s eight of the eight hours.”
A conservation success story
Peregrine falcons were born for hunting.
Their talons are over an inch long. They’re also the fastest animal – not just bird – in the world. They can reach diving speeds of over 200 mph while catching prey.
And yet, despite their vicious nature, Faherty has gotten to know the birds as “doting parents.” The mortality rate for young falcons is about 60%, according to the University of Toledo, but this doesn’t stop their efforts. He said Juliet and her mate Beck are constantly feeding mostly pigeons to their babies.
“As hard as it is, they keep doing this every spring,” Faherty says. “They keep having their babies knowing that they’re going to lose a couple of them. I think there’s something for all of us in that.”
Their story hasn’t always been so hopeful. The widespread use of the pesticide DDT after World War II caused egg thinning, devastating many bird species. By 1970, the peregrine falcon was classified as endangered.
Thanks to the banning of DDT two years later and repopulation efforts, the species recovered. As of 1999, they are no longer considered federally endangered – the most dramatic success of the Endangered Species Act, The Enquirer previously reported.
How did the falcons get to the Mercantile Library?
After a pair of falcons was spotted nesting in downtown Toledo in 1988, the state of Ohio decided to get involved with the Midwest Peregrine Falcon Restoration Project. Between 1989 and 1993, 46 peregrine falcons were released in Akron, Cincinnati and Columbus.
Unlike many birds, peregrine falcons do not build nests. Instead, they choose cliffs or tall buildings to create scrapes – simple depressions in gravel or dirt – and lay their eggs.
When the birds were first spotted at the abandoned building near the Mercantile, library staff and Raptor, Inc. volunteers took the fire escape connecting the two to see the falcons – “vaguely breaking and entering,” as Faherty called it.
He said the library staff thought it would be great if they could get the falcons to move to their building, so Raptor, Inc. gave them a nesting box. The next spring, Juliet had settled just outside Faherty’s office.
Falcons reshape Cincinnati’s view of nature
While her mating partner has changed over the years, Juliet has returned each spring. In early April, she laid four eggs. Three hatched, and the final egg will help future research at the Cincinnati Museum Center, the library shared on Facebook.
The eyasses are now learning to fly. Faherty said he expects them to be gone within a couple weeks. For now, they pace the ledge, flapping their wings.
“They have no fear of heights,” he said, demonstrating by jumping and flapping his arms at the elbow.
The library and Raptor, Inc. have worked together to connect the community with the birds. The library recently held a panel with Hays and representatives from the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden and Mercantile Library. They also invited online followers to suggest names for the chicks. Final picks were Min, Jin and Lee, after author Min Jin Lee, who will visit the Mercantile this fall.
“It does kind of show that people and birds can live together in an urban setting, and giving them a place to nest and observing them,” said Jeff Hays, a Raptor, Inc. volunteer who helped band the library’s falcons.
Certainly Faherty has felt the connection. Since he and Juliet are both from the Chicago area, he thinks of them as relatives, he said. But having lived in cities his whole life, he was never an outdoorsman, never thought much about the natural world, until the falcons came along.
“These guys have really changed the way I see the world, and I think they could do that for everyone,” Faherty said, an unrestrained smile and crinkled eyes reshaping his face for a moment. “You think a little bit more about the planet and the weather and all these changes that are happening, and you hope everything works out for these birds.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How the Mercantile Library falcons acquired a superfan
Reporting by Carly Gist, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Carly Gist, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
