Boeing’s assembly plant is shuttered amid 737 MAX crisis. Now the company has a falcon problem - peregrine falcon.jpg

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...alcon-problem/

Dark days are afoot at Boeing’s Renton assembly plant.

The 737 MAX remains grounded, some workers have shuffled off to other job sites
and headlines about engineering problems linger after crashes killed hundreds.

But with production of the troubled jet on hold, the company hopes for one last
flight — from the creatures who invented the concept.

For about four years, a pair of peregrine falcons has been nesting inside the
massive factory where the 737 MAX is assembled, making their home on metal
girders several stories above workers. The raptors feed on pigeons and starlings
unfortunate enough to flutter through hangar doors.

Wild peregrine falcons rarely live indoors and have not been documented to breed
inside, said Bud Anderson, a local raptor expert who has studied the birds for
decades.

“I’m not aware of this happening ever before,” he said.

Three of the pair’s offspring have fallen from the nest and walked the factory
floors.

Now, it’s time for the adult pair to go.

When it comes to the birds, the plant’s shutdown represents both burden and
opportunity for the hobbling aerospace giant. In a turbulent stretch of Boeing’s
history, the birds offer a rare reprieve from bludgeoning headlines.

“It’s quite an interesting story,” said CJ Nothum, a Boeing spokeswoman.

The plant’s closure — which will keep the hangar doors shuttered more often than
usual — could represent the best opportunity to flush the birds out to a better
home.

But evictions are rarely simple, even when they might be in a creatures’ best
interest. And peregrine falcons, who can fly half as fast as a commercial jet,
are no ordinary creature.

“Little indoor ecosystem”

Last June, a young peregrine falcon leaped from the rafters above the assembly
line. State wildlife officials call them “early jumpers,” more brave and less
coordinated than flying requires.

It’s a common problem for young, urban peregrines.

“They can’t fly for beans,” said Ed Deal, who bands and tracks the birds in
Seattle and is the president of the Urban Raptor Conservancy.

The fledgling fractured his sternum and was taken to PAWS Wildlife Center, a
rehabilitation facility in LyThree days later, a second young falcon, a female,
arrived at PAWS. A third bird showed up a week later.

Boeing hosted a nest, the staff realized, and it had become a problem.

In fact, adult peregrine falcons have been nesting in the assembly plant for
four years, according to Nothum, the Boeing spokeswoman. The company had to hire
a vendor to “clean up all those droppings and sanitize the factory areas so they
wouldn’t pose any health concerns.”

Two of the injured fledglings had been found “walking around on the
assembly-line floor in between planes,” said Deal, who last fall visited twice
with Boeing, trying to help the company solve the peregrine predicament.

The third was discovered in a break area for workers, according to Deal.

The factory had become “this little indoor ecosystem,” Deal said. “I saw a
peregrine chasing a crow in the rafters.”

The birds, he believes, also learned to listen for a bell that signals the
opening of the hangar doors. Then, they’d jet out of the building to hunt in
fresh air.

Urban hunters

Peregrine falcons propel themselves faster than any other animal. The fearsome
hunters’ spectacular dives for prey, called stoops, have been clocked as high as
242 mph.

In the wild, peregrine falcons are often found on the edge of cliffs.


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