And they hope the birds will help repopulate a part of the country that until recently had not seen peregrine falcons in 50 years.
Peregrine falcons have bounced back amazingly in New Jersey since they went extinct east of the Mississippi River in the 1960s, said Kathleen Clark, zoologist with the state Department of Environmental Protection.
And they're so ubiquitous in southern New Jersey that they can often be seen during the day on water towers in Stone Harbor, Margate and Ocean City.
New Jersey's 24 nesting pairs produced 39 hatchlings last year, including five that went to West Virginia. Nests produced chicks in Margate, Stone Harbor and the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.
