They've flown the coop.
From the mid to late '90s more than 30 peregrine falcons were reared-hacked as it's known in the ornithological community-atop what's now the World Trade Center in Lexington's downtown, with the hope that the birds of prey would spread their wings, but return to the Lexington skyline.
Since the hacking in Lexington stopped in 1999, only a few of the peregrines have been spotted in the downtown, none of which are believed to be native, according to Lexington Falcon Watch Volunteer Coordinator Craig Royce.
Royce said in recent years a male has made the signs adorning the top of the Central Bank Building his winter home. That roost is about a dozen stories higher than where the Lexington falcons were hacked, and the birds that were from Lexington didn't normally go higher than they are used to when they were fledglings, he said.
While the peregrine has made the building a common winter residence, even during the entire 2003 ice storm, he has never established a nest with a female.
"I had several sightings of a larger female also, hanging out for a short period of time, on the letters on that particular building," Royce said, but so far his boy has had no luck in attracting a long-term girlfriend to become his mate.
A nesting box was built above his favorite roost, the large "C" on the Vine Street side of the Central Bank building, but he's apparently turned down the unofficial invite to move into that lofty downtown home.
"We thought for sure if we put the nest box up they'd go right to it, but that didn't happen," said Shawchyi Vorisek, raptor research biologist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife. "We figured since we hacked birds in that area for so many years that birds would be coming back and try to nest (as often is their nature).
"I think most of the birds are following the river corridors because all of the nests that we have are along the Kentucky or Ohio Rivers," she said.
Birds have been hacked across the state in areas along rivers on cliff sides, their most common natural habitat, and around power plants and downtown areas because the structures closely resemble the monoliths and provide the high perches the peregrines desire.
Royce keeps his eye on the sky from his perch on the 21st floor of the Lexington Financial Center, the Fifth Third building, where he also watches over the building's maintenance crew. He last saw the male falcon downtown in late October. Unlike recent years the peregrine's preferred food source, European Starlings, did not make their way to the downtown area in 2006, so Royce figures the peregrine sought them out. "Their mantra is food, 24 hours a day. Animals, of course, follow the food chain, they can't go to Kroger."
Vorisek said there are pairs nesting in Kentucky near the Bedford power plant, the Ghent power plant, in Milton on a bridge, a bridge near Maysville, near Cincinnati, and near Brandenberg.
Despite the peregrine's absence, Royce still looks in awe to the sky, either from his office or the 31st floor balcony of the building where many birds, including a group of turkey vultures, can be spotted soaring around the town.
"I've had a world class view for the last many years, just a living National Geographic or Discovery Channel experience," Royce said. "Life downtown is not quite as mundane when you look just above the tree tops a little bit. There's more going on here than people think."