GRANDVIEW, W.Va. -- On an outcropping of cliff overlooking a long, winding stretch of the New River, Ron Perrone dropped a half-dozen whole quail carcasses into a tube at the rear of a wooden box with a wire mesh front containing six young peregrine falcons.

A cacophony of keening squawks followed the food drop, done through a tube to minimize the birds' contact with humans.

"I'll tell you what, their noise is unbelievable," Perrone said, grinning and shaking his head, as he edged away from the clifftop cage, known as a hacking box, or artificial nest, to grab another bag of quail.

The birds have a lot to crow about. A few weeks ago, after hatching on bridges and buildings in coastal urban areas in Virginia and New Jersey, where their odds of living into adulthood are slim, they were rescued by wildlife officials and driven by volunteers to the New River Gorge.

Here at Grandview, a component of the New River Gorge National River and a part of the National Park Service, the birds have some of the best, and best-protected, habitat in the East in which to learn to fly and hunt.

A few hundred feet upstream from the hacking box where quail were being dispensed, Wendy Perrone was rigging nylon cord to the door of a similar box containing six slightly older peregrines, to allow the cage to be opened remotely. Wendy Perrone is the director of Three Rivers Avian Center, the Summers County-based raptor rehabilitation and education program that manages the peregrine reintroduction program for the New River Gorge through a National Park Service contract. Ron, her husband, is the avian center's education director.

As Wendy Perrone extended the nylon cord through a series of carabiner clips to a viewing blind in a nearby laurel thicket, hack site attendant Andy Woodruff tied several quail to the roof of the hack box and placed others on the ledge outside the doorway.

"You never know what the peregrines will do once the door is opened," said Ron Perrone. "They may hop out and start eating the quail, or jump up on the rail and start paddling their wings, or take hours to just get out of the box. You don't want to see them jump into the air, because they don't know what they're doing, yet."

As the door was gently opened, several of the birds walked toward the opening and eyed it thoroughly for a few minutes, before one of them dared to hop out of the enclosure and start sampling the quail.

The second falcon out of the box almost immediately took to the air. Its intuitive flight skills, however, seemed to be at least adequate, as the falcon flapped a few dozen yards past the lip of the canyon, then veered upstream, flying strongly, and was soon out of sight.

"Hopefully, we'll see it back here later," Wendy Perrone whispered a short time later. "They do better in the wild if they spend some time on the cliff before flying off like that. They usually start out tail-chasing each other after a couple of days," then learn to hunt wild birds while improving their flying skills.

Within an hour, all six falcons had left the hack box, and were snacking on quail, enjoying the view from the roof of the box, flapping their wings with enough skill to reach nearby tree limbs, or observing passing butterflies and songbirds with keen interest. By mid-afternoon, the peregrine that had initially bolted from the release site had returned, and was showing off for the younger falcons in the not-quite-ready-for-flight-time box.

"He's picking up sticks and leaves and showing the younger birds all the fun things you can do when you're out of the box," Wendy Perrone said.

Road to recovery

The New River Gorge National River is in its fourth year of a five-year peregrine falcon reintroduction program -- one of the largest in the nation.

Since 2006, 62 young peregrines have been released in the Gorge. This year, a total of at least 15 more falcons will be set free here.

Once on the endangered species list, due mainly to the use of the insecticide DDT, which interfered with egg development, the peregrine falcon population has gradually rebounded, thanks mainly to a ban on DDT and reintroduction efforts. Off the endangered list since 1999, peregrines remain relatively rare in the East, particularly in natural settings.

Before being released in the Gorge, the birds receive dual color-coded leg bands to help observers identify them.

GRANDVIEW, W.Va. -- On an outcropping of cliff overlooking a long, winding stretch of the New River, Ron Perrone dropped a half-dozen whole quail carcasses into a tube at the rear of a wooden box with a wire mesh front containing six young peregrine falcons.

A cacophony of keening squawks followed the food drop, done through a tube to minimize the birds' contact with humans.

"I'll tell you what, their noise is unbelievable," Perrone said, grinning and shaking his head, as he edged away from the clifftop cage, known as a hacking box, or artificial nest, to grab another bag of quail.

The birds have a lot to crow about. A few weeks ago, after hatching on bridges and buildings in coastal urban areas in Virginia and New Jersey, where their odds of living into adulthood are slim, they were rescued by wildlife officials and driven by volunteers to the New River Gorge.

Here at Grandview, a component of the New River Gorge National River and a part of the National Park Service, the birds have some of the best, and best-protected, habitat in the East in which to learn to fly and hunt.

A few hundred feet upstream from the hacking box where quail were being dispensed, Wendy Perrone was rigging nylon cord to the door of a similar box containing six slightly older peregrines, to allow the cage to be opened remotely. Wendy Perrone is the director of Three Rivers Avian Center, the Summers County-based raptor rehabilitation and education program that manages the peregrine reintroduction program for the New River Gorge through a National Park Service contract. Ron, her husband, is the avian center's education director.

As Wendy Perrone extended the nylon cord through a series of carabiner clips to a viewing blind in a nearby laurel thicket, hack site attendant Andy Woodruff tied several quail to the roof of the hack box and placed others on the ledge outside the doorway.

"You never know what the peregrines will do once the door is opened," said Ron Perrone. "They may hop out and start eating the quail, or jump up on the rail and start paddling their wings, or take hours to just get out of the box. You don't want to see them jump into the air, because they don't know what they're doing, yet."

As the door was gently opened, several of the birds walked toward the opening and eyed it thoroughly for a few minutes, before one of them dared to hop out of the enclosure and start sampling the quail.

The second falcon out of the box almost immediately took to the air. Its intuitive flight skills, however, seemed to be at least adequate, as the falcon flapped a few dozen yards past the lip of the canyon, then veered upstream, flying strongly, and was soon out of sight.

"Hopefully, we'll see it back here later," Wendy Perrone whispered a short time later. "They do better in the wild if they spend some time on the cliff before flying off like that. They usually start out tail-chasing each other after a couple of days," then learn to hunt wild birds while improving their flying skills.

Within an hour, all six falcons had left the hack box, and were snacking on quail, enjoying the view from the roof of the box, flapping their wings with enough skill to reach nearby tree limbs, or observing passing butterflies and songbirds with keen interest. By mid-afternoon, the peregrine that had initially bolted from the release site had returned, and was showing off for the younger falcons in the not-quite-ready-for-flight-time box.

"He's picking up sticks and leaves and showing the younger birds all the fun things you can do when you're out of the box," Wendy Perrone said.

Road to recovery

The New River Gorge National River is in its fourth year of a five-year peregrine falcon reintroduction program -- one of the largest in the nation.

Since 2006, 62 young peregrines have been released in the Gorge. This year, a total of at least 15 more falcons will be set free here.

Once on the endangered species list, due mainly to the use of the insecticide DDT, which interfered with egg development, the peregrine falcon population has gradually rebounded, thanks mainly to a ban on DDT and reintroduction efforts. Off the endangered list since 1999, peregrines remain relatively rare in the East, particularly in natural settings.

Before being released in the Gorge, the birds receive dual color-coded leg bands to help observers identify them.

Last November, a male falcon released in the Gorge in 2007 was seen flying in the vicinity of that year's Lansing area hack site. In late March, he returned, accompanied by an un-banded, wild female.

Later, the pair was seen making courtship flights and breeding, and eventually the Perrones and National Park Service wildlife biologists verified that the falcons had established a nest in a deep rock crevice directly below the park's former hack site.

"We could see them feeding their young, and we could hear two young birds," said Ron Perrone. "It was the first confirmed nest in the New River Gorge, and we were really excited about it."

But as of May 19, the birds have not been seen or heard.

"They just vaporized," Perrone said. "We don't know what happened to them, but we want to find out."

A pair of National Park Service employees skilled in climbing rappelled down to the nest site on Wednesday and confirmed the nest had been abandoned. Only a few feathers and droppings were left behind, giving biologists no clues as to what caused the nesting site's failure.

"We're hoping to see the same pair return here next year," said Mark Graham, wildlife biologist for the New River Gorge National River.

Global interest

Establishment of a nest in close proximity to the Gorge's old hacking site meant that this year's release site had to be moved, to avoid disturbing the nesting falcon family. A stretch of towering cliffs along Canyon Rim Trail in the Gorge's Grandview unit was chosen as this year's hack site.

Signs and log barriers have been placed near the hacking boxes to keep people from interfering with the young birds' adaptation to life in the wild.

But a bench has been placed along the trail within sight of one hacking box to accommodate falcon-watchers, and the North Overlook near Picnic Shelter No. 1 gives good views of both hacking boxes for those with binoculars and spotting scopes.

A number of peregrines released in 2007 were equipped with transmitters that bounced radio signals off satellites, making their daily travels easy to track. The tracking data was posted on the New River Gorge National River's Web site, allowing anyone with Internet access to follow the birds' movements, which ranged from Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico. A live Webcam was also stationed in the Lansing area hacking site, giving viewers the ability watch the young birds in action.

"When the Webcam went down temporarily, we got e-mails from members of a bird-watching club in Italy who wanted to know what had happened," said Candace Tinkler, chief of interpretation for New River Gorge National River.

The last operational peregrine-mounted satellite uplink from the 2007 hack is worn by a falcon that stays almost exclusively in the Harpers Ferry area.

Peregrine falcons are the fastest-flying birds in the world, capable of traveling at 200 miles per hour in dives.  The falcons feed on birds, which they catch in midair.

In the both the United States and Canada, there are believed to be about 1,650 breeding pairs.   

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.