30 May 2024

Fifteen days from now we will celebrate 52 years since the first big step was taken to save peregrine falcons from extinction in the U.S. Scientists had published studies showing that DDT was thinning raptor eggshells and causing all nests to fail. At that point there were no juvenile peregrines east of the Rockies to carry on the species. Thankfully, on 14 June 1972 DDT was banned in the U.S.

Where was the evidence that peregrine eggshells had thinned? In museum collections.

Read a bit of history and see …