Akron’s downtown peregrine falcons are incubating at least two eggs.
Volunteer Chad Saladin, a Lorain resident who monitors falcon nests in Northeast Ohio with his wife, Chris, said he checked the Akron nest on the 19th floor of the FirstMerit Tower last week and made the discovery.
It is possible that Summit, the female falcon, could add another egg or two after that inspection, he said.
Female falcons generally lay three to four eggs over a number of days.
The male bird is McKinley, who was born in Canton.
Akron’s falcons have a big fan in Ken Morgan.
He got hooked when a young falcon repeatedly roosted late last year on a ledge outside his 10th-floor apartment in downtown Akron.
The bird was “very impressive,” he said, and that led the 64-year-old to research more about the Akron birds.
Canton’s nest has three eggs that are due to hatch Tuesday or Wednesday, Saladin said.
The adult birds are Mystic, who hatched in Rocky River, and an unbanded male nicknamed Maurice or Mo.
The first Canton egg was laid March 11 on the Chase Bank Building.
Incubation typically takes 32 or 33 days.
There is a new female falcon at the nest in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Lara, the previous female, has moved to a nest on the Interstate 480 bridge in Valley View.
She has been replaced by a first-year unbanded female.
The male bird is Rocky, who hatched in Rocky River.
That pair has just started mating in the last few weeks, Saladin said.
It will be some time before they are likely to produce eggs at a nest on the Ohio Turnpike bridge over the Cuyahoga River in Boston Township.
Rocky and Lara had shared that nest since 2008. It is a difficult nest to observe because of its location on the underside of the bridge.
The Saladins monitor about nine falcon nests in the Akron, Canton and Cleveland areas.
A bird hatched in Akron in 2014 has taken up residence with its mate on the West Bank of the Flats in Cleveland.
The male bird is Wingbeat, the last surviving offspring of Chesapeake, the longtime resident female falcon in downtown Akron. Chesapeake died in December 2014 in a fight with another female. She and her mates produced 53 eggs that produced 49 chicks, of which 36 fledged or flew away.
The recovery of the falcons has progressed so well that the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife has stopped monitoring the birds’ nests.
The crow-sized birds were federally endangered until 1999. In 2008, Ohio changed their status from endangered to threatened as numbers increased.
The falcons can dive at speeds of up to 200 mph. They often feed on smaller birds.
The Saladins post frequent peregrine falcon photos at C&C’s Ohio Peregrine page on Facebook.
Bob Downing can be reached at 330-996-3745 or bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com.