Park District Raptor Study Profiled in Bay Nature Magazine

The East Bay Regional Park District Stewardship staff study a wide range of wildlife from red-legged frogs to least terns. One of the District’s most elaborate and complex studies however, has to do with Prairie falcons. Prairie falcons (Falco mexicanus) are medium-sized falcons found in western North America. They have been documented in the dryer places of the East Bay for thousands of years. In scientific terms, the prairie falcon is known as an indicator species. Where it hunts indicates how healthy the area is in terms of other species typically found there such as ground squirrels, kit fox, golden eagles, burrowing owls, California red-legged frogs and California tiger salamanders.

Douglas Bell, PhD. Is the District’s Wildlife Stewardship Manager and has led a staff using radiotelemetry to track falcons and study their behavior. Bell has learned where the East Bay's prairie falcons go to forage. Typically, they'll commute five to ten miles from the nest on foraging flights, though one male routinely flies from the Mount Diablo area to Bethany Reservoir in the Central Valley. First-year prairie falcons may wander much farther. Two were found in Montana.

Learn more about it in Raptor Rapture in the latest edition of Bay Nature Magazine.

Douglas Bell is the Park District’s Wildlife Program Manager. He received a PhD in Zoology from UC Berkeley, and was a Postdoctoral Associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Just prior to joining the Park District in 2005, Dr. Bell was an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University Sacramento. He has a long interest in raptor ecology and conservation issues.

Bay Nature magazine is a full-color quarterly publication that explores the landscapes and wildlife of the Bay Area, and highlights the people and organizations that are working to understand them, protect them, and educate others about them. Look for exciting East Bay Regional Park District stories in every issue.