Aggregate home to unexpected tenants

SAUGUS – Aggregate Industries, known primarily for quarries and asphalt is producing something new this summer: a pair of peregrine fledglings.Scott Colby of Aggregate Industries said a pair of peregrine falcons was spotted earlier this spring and has since has hatched a pair of babies.Tom French, assistant director of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, said he has checked in on the little family and all are doing fine.French said this is actually the second summer the peregrines have made the quarry their home, but as far as he knows the birds of prey didn’t produce any offspring last year.The peregrine falcon is considered the fastest bird on earth and was all but extinct just a few decades ago. French said there were none living on the east coast in 1966.The bird has since been taken off the federal endangered species list, although it remains on the list for the state.”Historically, there have only ever been about 375 adults in the eastern part of the United States,” French said. “They were never very populated here.”Capable of diving from great heights at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, the falcons are marked by long pointed wings and a long, slightly rounded tail. The adults have a bluish-gray backside and a whitish underside with a little black mixed in. Adults also sport a black crown and sideburn type markings, a white throat and a dark bill with a prominent yellow base. Males are said to be slightly smaller than a crow, while females are a little bigger than a crow.French said initially Aggregate officials were a little concerned about just what hosting an endangered species would entail.Colby admitted he was surprised when he learned they really didn’t have to adjust their schedules to accommodate the birds.”Generally speaking, we stay away when they’re nesting and when they’re not nesting it’s business as usual.”French stopped by to visit the Aggregate falcons but he didn’t employ the typical practice of banding them for tracking purposes. French said the idea of him scaling the quarry walls made Aggregate officials a little nervous.”Though that would probably have been one of the easier sites for me to get to,” he said. “But our numbers are large enough that I was not as insistent on it as I was in the past.”While the little fledglings are almost ready to leave the nest, French said Colby could keep his eye out for the falcons’ return next spring.”They will hang around all year,” he said. “They won’t be as attached to the quarry as they are now, but they won’t migrate far. You could go into the quarry and expect to see (the falcons) any day of the year.”