NEWPORT, Ore. — Bird watchers have been gathering for weeks near the Yaquina Head Lighthouse north of Newport to watch nature in action. For nearly a decade, peregrine falcons have been laying eggs and raising chicks on an aerie sitting about 75 feet off the ground.
"They're extremely athletic, they're fast and they put you in awe of day to day actions of what they do," said local bird watcher Yale Fogarty said. Fogarty has been watching the nest since March.
Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses, a group helping restore and preserve the Yaquina Bay and Yaquina Head lighthouses, had raised money to set up a camera focusing in on the nest. They weren't expecting the drama that would unfold.
Shortly after the four eggs hatched, the mother falcon disappeared. Wildlife officials and birders like Fogarty think she most likely died. The father falcon took over parenting duties but hasn't been seen in a week. Without a parental falcon bringing them food and eventually teaching them to hunt on their own, they will starve.
At one point there were four birds in the nest and all were close to fledging or getting ready to fly and leave. In mid-June, three of the falcons fell or jumped down from the nest. One of the birds died, another was rescued and taken to a local raptor rescue group and the third is still missing.
On Friday morning, Bob Sallinger of the Portland Audubon Society told KGW he'd received notice that another falcon chick had come to the ground and was found dead. "It's not clear to me right now if there is another bird still missing or not," Sallinger said.
Bird rescue groups like the Portland Audobon Society offered to step in to help rescue and raise the chicks through a process called hacking. Hacking is the process of training a bird of prey to hunt on their own and then when the time is right, releasing them into the wild to be an independent hunter.
"This is the process that was used to recover peregrine falcons during the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s when they were critically endangered," Sallinger said.
But bird rescue groups don't have jurisdiction over what happens with the birds. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) owns the land that the nest sits on. And the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and U.S. Fish and Wildlife have jurisdiction over what happens with the birds.
Matt Betenson, site manager at Yaquina Head, said all three agencies are working together to figure out the next plan. Despite offers of help, Betenson said with other falcons in the area and the hope for a potential foster scenario, the agencies decided the best course of action is to let nature take its course.
"As soon as we introduce human interaction into that aerie where the chicks are resting, very low potential to have a wild falcon in that outcome," Betenson said.
Fostering is something Betenson said he's seen before. "We've had that fostering process happen here at Yaquina Head with the previous female," Betenson said.
Sallinger said he believes the agencies made a mistake in not stepping in to assist the falcon chicks.
"Once the birds were determined to be orphaned they should have been rescued," Sallinger said. "Rescue was feasible and resources were mobilized as soon as BLM indicated it was open to a rescue. There were qualified people ready and willing to help. Allowing them to starve to death on the cliff is not an acceptable outcome.
"I appreciate that these situations are complex and the agencies have to consider multiple factors. However, this feels like a bureaucratic decision that failed both in terms of compassion and conservation. If you have the opportunity to rescue four peregrine falcons and return them to the sky, why would you turn it down?"
Fogarty and other bird watchers were dismayed by the lack of action from the agencies in charge.
"Four peregrine falcon chicks that lost their parents sitting on a ledge starving to death, oh we're gonna let nature takes its course. It makes zero sense," Fogarty said.
The Friends of Yaquina Lighthouses has turned away the camera saying it was getting too difficult to watch what was happening.