Peregrine falcons 2008!

It has been a habit for quite a few years: the same pair of peregrine falcons raising their chicks on a tower of the Brussels Cathedral of Saint-Michael and Saint-Gudula. Set up at the foot of the cathedral, screens show the breeding, the hatching of the eggs and the first stage of the eyasses’ life. Public interest is increasing every year…

This year the peregrine falcons turned up again! They are sitting on their four eggs, high in the cathedral tower. The RTBF programme “Au quotidien” (La Une) will regularly cover this event. This year telescopes will be mounted in the cathedral yard, enabling the public to follow the falcons’ flight.

But the peregrine falcon is also reappearing elsewhere in Brussels. One pair lives in St Anthony’s church in Etterbeek (which is close to our Museum) and another in St Hubert’s church in Watermaal-Bosvoorde. Here too observers are closely watching for babies to be born.

Maybe spring is in the air for biodiversity too? Being at the top of the food chain, the peregrine falcon nearly died out in Europe and North America by the use of DDT pesticides. Due to the banning of those pesticides and a targeted conservation policy, its population has largely recovered. There is much left to be done to biodiversity, but this is certainly a success story.

Follow the peregrine falcons as they raise their chicks on the website "Falcons for all" (only available in French and Dutch; this website will be opened in a new window).