By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

A new male peregrine falcon (pictured) has joined Mary Ellen at Cinergy's Miami Fort Station. Peregrines are an endangered species in Ohio. The couple oversaw five eggs laid in a nest on the side of a smoke stack 450 feet high. Four eggs hatched. The Cincinnati Enquirer/MICHAEL E. KEATING

NORTH BEND - Spring is in the air, and that means the chicks are out. Peregrine falcon chicks.

For the fifth consecutive year, a smokestack at Cinergy's Miami Fort Station is home to a nesting pair of peregrine falcons - these with four new babies. There are no public viewing sites for the falcons, which live in a large nesting box attached to a ledge on the outside of a smokestack, 450 feet in the air.

Officials with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Wildlife were on hand Thursday to draw blood and tag the chicks so they can be identified and tracked. The samples are used for genetic identification and research.

Falcons were on the federally endangered species list until 1995, when their numbers became large enough to be taken off the list. Still, many Midwestern states, including Ohio, consider the falcons endangered because their numbers hereabouts are relatively few.

The Buckeye State has an estimated 17 falcon pairs, with three of those pairs living in Greater Cincinnati.

Dave Scott, coordinator for the ODNR's peregrine falcon program, said he is expecting a record year from Ohio's falcons.

"Of the pairs we have this year, 15 are nesting - and we're expecting them to produce between 40 and 45 young," Scott said. "That will be a record. We're already exceeding what we thought was their potential (in Ohio)."

The resident female, Mary Ellen, laid five eggs with a new mate this year. The four chicks that hatched are named Falco, Shadow, Kieko and A.J. Falcons usually nest with the same mate for life. But Mary Ellen's original mate, River Ace, was killed two years ago. Her new mate is untagged, so it is impossible to know where he came from.

The chicks will be full-grown in about three weeks and forced out of the nest by their mom.

Miami Fort has been trying to attract peregrine falcons since 1993, when employees built the nesting box. The box remained empty until 1997, when a male and female nested but produced no eggs.

Mary Ellen and her mates have been successfully producing offspring since 2000.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com