Baby falcons hatched on Throgs Neck Bridge

From CBS New York:

A dozen new peregrine falcon chicks have been born atop the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge, the agency said.

The falcons remain on the New York State’s endangered birds list.

The MTA has participated in the state’s nesting program since 1983, providing a nesting box atop the bridges, the agency said.

Is this in our future?

From the Daily News:

Picture an 80-foot rock barrier rising from the Atlantic Ocean, stretching for 5 miles from Breezy Point, Queens, to Sandy Hook, N.J. — and topped with a new highway.

Or a 1,700-foot wall spanning the Arthur Kill, featuring a pedestrian walkway, a bike path, hydroelectric power and a system of locks for passing ships.

Or maybe a towering structure in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge, with the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, complete with twin 640-foot gates.

In post-Sandy New York, plans to harness New York Harbor and its surrounding waterways with such multibillion-dollar projects almost instantly turned more tangible than theoretical.

In the search for answers, it’s now like Robert Moses is battling King Poseidon in the globally-warmed waters around the nation’s largest city.

Proponents suggest the barriers — already successful in Russia’s St. Petersburg and across the flood-prone Netherlands — could prevent a disaster repeat.

Count City Council President Christine Quinn among that group. She’s proposed a $16 billion storm surge barrier as part of a possible plan to safeguard the city.

Count Mayor Bloomberg among the skeptics. After Sandy, he noted that “you can’t build a wall up to the sky.”

But you can build one to lessen the impact the next time a hurricane hits town, engineers and experts say — and the city has already endured two in as many years.

Baby banding on the bridges

Native New Yorkers born on bridges

From the NY Times:

Five peregrine falcon chicks have been hatched in recent weeks in nests atop the towers of the Verrazano-Narrows, Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges Memorial Bridges, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced on Thursday.

The Verrazano-Narrows falcons were two females and a male, while the Throgs Neck and Marine Parkway-Gil Hodges each had a male. The Throgs Neck chick hatched four weeks ago, and the other four hatched three weeks ago.

This week, a state volunteer wildlife expert placed metal bands around the chicks’ feet, with numbers to identify and track the birds as they grow and reproduce. Peregrine falcons are still on the state endangered species list, although they are no longer on the federal list.