New Peregrine nest in the Keweenaw.

In May of 2025 a Peregrine was reported at the roadside park along US-41 north of Baraga. It was migration so I figured it didn’t necessarily mean much. But a week later I saw a Peregrine in flight as I drove past. So I investigated and sure enough there were two Peregrines there. A male in adult plumage and a female in immature plumage.

Sporting her streaked immature plumage, this one-year-old female peregrine falcon bears leg bands that trace her origin back to northern Minnesota. (2025)

Displaying his sleek, slate-gray adult plumage, the male falcon stands guard from a high branch above the roadside site. (2025)

So I kept monitoring and witnessed mating, they seemed serious. But then the female seemed to disappear and then by July the male had gone. But in April of 2026 I spotted the female again – in adult plumage and the game was on. By late May I’d located the nest ledge along the crumbly sandstone cliffs there and by late June I saw three half grown young.

Now sporting her sleek adult plumage in the above two pictures, the female peregrine returns to the cliffs a year later to nest. (2026)

I went for a trip just before they were due to fledge and a friend monitored the falcons while I was gone and determined that two youngsters had fledged and were seen along the cliffs.

Tucked into a precarious ledge along the crumbling red sandstone cliffs, three young peregrine falcons await their next meal shortly before fledging in 2026.

As I write this in mid-August the young are still around but seen less often. By September they’ll probably disperse.