The story of two Peregrine falcons that have nested on the ledge of Harrisburg’s Rachel Carson State Office Building since 2005 will continue this year before a worldwide audience now that the cameras that broadcast their experiences are live online. Two cameras will chronicle the falcons round-the-clock while streaming the footage live via the Web to interested viewers around the world. The video is available on the Department of Environmental Protection’s Web site, www.depweb.state.pa.us, keyword: Falcons.

DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty said the popularity of the online broadcast among students and adults has made the Peregrine falcon page one of DEP’s most visited. “The response we receive from this Webcast is phenomenal every year,” said McGinty. “Last year, the falcon page was viewed more than 3 million times. “It’s amazing to see and read the comments visitors from around the world have left. We’ve received questions and feedback from viewers in America, Canada, Europe, New Zealand—basically, from every corner of the planet. And the interest is coming from adults and classrooms where teachers and students are following the progress of these falcons and learning about the ways they can protect their habitats.

“By seeing the falcons’ progress up close, we can appreciate how our actions have a very real and direct impact on the wildlife and environment around us.”

McGinty said viewers may be able to see the eggs arrive this weekend. Based on data recorded at the site from past nesting seasons, the first egg should arrive sometime around March 25. In each of the past two years, the female falcon has laid a “clutch” of five eggs. The eggs should begin to hatch around Mother’s Day, May 11, and the young falcons, or “fledglings,” will begin to take their first flights around Father’s Day, June 15. This will be the fourth year this pair of falcons has nested at the Rachel Carson building. The female has laid eggs here since 2000 with two different males, the second having been introduced in 2005 after the original male was discovered injured the previous year. Pennsylvania’s Peregrine falcon population has increased since the early 1990s as a direct result of reintroduction efforts such as the one at the Rachel Carson State Office Building. There are more than a dozen pairs of Peregrine falcons nesting at locations across the state. While their numbers are improving, Peregrine falcons remain an endangered species in Pennsylvania. In the early 1900s, there were about 350 pairs of nesting Peregrines in the state. So far, the nest at the Rachel Carson State Office Building has produced 34 eggs. Of those, 32 hatched producing 16 males and 15 females (the sex of one nestling hatched in 2006, the runt of the clutch, could not be determined). Of these, 19 falcons survived —10 males and nine females. This is the 8th year that the state has provided this up-close look at the falcons.