Bullet, Zoomer, Blazer, Malcolm the Falcon and Jagged Claw are on their own now and soaring across the Allentown skyline.
The "peregrine falcon five," which were raised this summer on the 23rd floor of the PP&L Tower Building, are no longer depending on human help for food and only return occasionally to the building.
"The falcons are still in the Allentown area, but they are no longer roosting on the Tower Building," said Jeff Luzenski, a PP&L environmental engineer and coordinator of the Lehigh Valley Peregrine Project. "This project has accomplished exactly what we had hoped. To the best of our knowledge, the birds are healthy and thriving. They are on their own now and, as expected, are beginning to disperse."
This spring, PP&L and a coalition of environmental and community groups, businesses and state agencies joined together to bring the endangered falcons to the PP&L building. The project is part of a statewide effort by the Pennsylvania Game Commission to re-establish the birds in the state.
The falcons, which were named by elementary school students as part of a contest, arrived in June and spent their first few weeks in Allentown in a "hack" box on the outer ledge of the building. The birds now are full grown and hunting on their own, feeding on small birds and pigeons.
"We were providing them with food until Aug. 18, but they stopped depending on us before that," Luzenski said.
The falcons captured the interest of many people in Allentown and throughout the Lehigh Valley. A toll-free hotline to provide falcon updates and for people to report sightings received hundreds of calls during the last two months, Luzenski said.
The number is 1-800-354-8383 and still is in use. Reports of sightings are still appreciated, especially if the colors of identification bands on the birds' feet are identified, Luzenski said.
While the birds were still living on the PP&L building, pedestrians on Hamilton Street often gathered around a video monitor in a building display window to get a close-up look at the birds. Service Electric cable in Allentown also mounted a camera on the 23rd floor and broadcast live shots of the falcons to a local television audience.
"Their acrobatic flights and stoops have made falcon watching a popular spectator sport in Allentown," Luzenski said.
The birds have been seen in a downtown area stretching from about 15th and Hamilton streets to the large gas tank along the Lehigh River near the Hamilton Street bridge.
"We recently have had several confirmed sightings down near the river by the gas tank," Luzenski said. "It's difficult to tell exactly how far they've traveled because we can't confirm the accuracy of reported sightings, but we know they are starting to roam from the downtown area."
Falcons typically will start dispersing from their primary area by September and migrate south for the winter. In some communities where they were introduced as part of re-establishment programs, however, the birds have not migrated.
"We hope that if they do migrate, a pair will return next spring, take up permanent residence in the Lehigh Valley and produce offspring," Luzenski said. "If that happens, the project will do a quantum leap forward. There were only five identified active nesting pairs in the state this year."
If a nesting pair doesn't return, PP&L is committed to introducing more birds the next two summers on the PP&L building. If a nesting pair is established, project coordinators may investigate another Lehigh Valley location to introduce new falcons.
"Since peregrine pairs need about a three-mile territory between them so they don't compete and attack each other, we would seek a site in Bethlehem or somewhere else in the Lehigh Valley where there are suitable tall buildings," Luzenski said.
The PP&L building, because of its height and multitiered architecture, made a good substitute home for the falcons, which nest on cliffs and rock faces in the wild to avoid predators.
The Lehigh Valley Peregrine Project was supported by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Wildlands Conservancy, the Lehigh Valley Audubon Society, the North American Falconers Assoc., the Pennsylvania Falconers & Hawk Trust, the Downtown Allentown Improvement District Authority (DIDA), the Allentown Hilton and numerous other businesses in the Lehigh Valley.