Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Watch video of the banding process for the baby peregrine falcons living in the nest box at the We Energies plan in Port Washington.
Peregrine Manager Greg Septon explains the process and reasons for banding the birds that nest in the box on top of the energy company's plant. This year's baby falcons were all males, and names were chosen by veterans and volunteers with the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight organization. More about the We Energies peregrine falcons:
Peregrine Manager Greg Septon explains the process and reasons for banding the birds that nest in the box on top of the energy company's plant.
The four newest baby peregrine falcons living in the We Energies plant nest box now have names, thanks to participants in the Stars and Stripes Honor Flight organization. Names for the birds — who are all males — were chosen from a hat of submissions by veterans and volunteers with Stars and Stripes, and are: Gasco, Bucky, Griff and Lightning. "The importance of banding is it allows us to manage this population … we've really got only about 30 pairs of nesting peregrine falcons in the state of Wisconsin, so knowing where they go, knowing how long they live, knowing what happens to them if there are problems is very, very important from a management standpoint," Peregrine Manager Greg Septon said. The effort at We Energies to save the …
Monday, April 29, 2013
Take a look at some of the pictures as the eggs hatch and the falcon protects her babies. At least one more egg is expected to hatch today.
Peregrine falcon eggs hatched Monday in the Port Washington We Energies Generating Station. A We Energies representative says that two or three out of four eggs hatched. There should be at least one more egg that should be hatching soon. The We Energies peregrine falcon recovery program has expanded their efforts by offering educational lessons for a group of Ozaukee County students. Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School student volunteers placed two nest boxes on campus with the help of a We Energies employee.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School is learning from We Energies peregrine falcons recovery efforts through a variety of initiatives and class curriculum.
The We Energies peregrine falcon recovery efforts are doing more than saving birds — the program is offering educational lessons for a group of Ozaukee County students. Fifth-graders at Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School were "inspired" to help the We Energies falcon recovery effort after learning about the program during class, according to a press release from teacher Mary Anderson. "A group of student volunteers developed a proposal to place two nest boxes on campus and the school board approved the proposal on March 13th," Anderson wrote in the release. "On March 21st , a We Energies employee volunteered his time to help students construct and install the boxes on two sites. "The boxes will be monitored and maintained by the students on…
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Customers get alert when paying their bill on the utility company's website.
We Energies continues to alert customers of a scam that promises to pay utility bills through federal stimulus money offered by the Obama administration. The utility company has placed an alert on its Web site telling customers who pay their bill online of the threat. The notice reads: "Alert: A scam promising federal money to pay utility bills has been discovered. No such program exists, and payments made using bank routing numbers in the scam will be rejected. Please use your current banking information to make online payments." We Energies' spokesperson Cathy Schulze said Tuesday the alert was placed on the site in response to a nationwide scam that arose a few weeks ago. "Fortunately we did not see a huge impact here with our …
Friday, July 20, 2012
Though subleases with We Energies were approved more than a year ago, city officials say they are still in the planning process of the north dock project and construction will likely not start until fall.
It's been more than a year since the Port Washington Common Council approved sublease agreements with We Energies for public use of the north and south coal docks, with plans for the eventual development of the area into a public recreation and nature site. On Aug. 6, the south dock area — which was turned into some walking trails as part of a bird sanctuary — will finally open up to the public, City Administrator Mark Grams said. Visitors will be able to access the sanctuary from South Beach. But the north coal dock still sits looking the same as before. Funding fell through, and city officials focused their efforts on finding grants — rather than starting construction. Now, officials are still working with engineers on some plan …
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
South Beach and its adjacent parking lot will be closed to the public starting on Monday while We Energies works to remove some concrete rubble.
With the hot weather many people flock to the lakeside, spending the day on the beach splashing in the water and enjoying the Lake Michigan breeze. But, next week, beachgoers will have to flock north as South Beach will be completely closed to public access while We Energies works to clean up the area. "We Energies will be removing concrete rubble from the beach using large construction equipment," We Energies Official Susan Schumacher said in an e-mail to the city. "Both the beach and the parking lot will be closed to the public during that time for safety reasons. Thank you for your patience while we clean up the beach." According to the Ozaukee Press, the equipment will be used to remove the remaining pieces of two concrete smokestacks …
Saturday, June 9, 2012
The Port Washington Common Council has had quite a few discussions about beach improvements lately, including runoff and rubble problems as well as possible beautification to the entrances.
Lake Michigan provides natural beauty that is the reason many residents live in Port Washington and the inspiration for many visitors to come to the city every year. But even though the lake is naturally attractive, city officials are concerned about a few issues on both North and South beach. The Common Council this week discussed the possibility of more improvements to the North Beach entrance to create what Mayor Tom Mlada called "high-class beach entrance." This suggestion comes after the council in May approved a quick fix to runoff issues near the entrance. The curb-like edging solution should be added by next week, City Adminstrator Mark Grams said. The curb will help channel the water down to the beach, and shouldn't cost more than…
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
A small portion of those customers were left without power for nearly 8 hours, according to We Energies officials; the company is also battling outages on Tuesday because of high winds.
Short and not-so-sweet, a severe thunderstorm that rushed across the Port Washington area on Monday night caused power outages to about 3,000 city residents, some left without power for nearly 8 hours. "Port got hit pretty hard, I would say," We Energies Spokesperson Barry McNulty said. No outages were reported in Saukville, he said; in the village of Grafton, only about 300 customers were affected. "The thing is, every line, every stystem, every pole is different," McNulty said. "You have areas that just might sustain more damage than others — that also is why sometimes your power could be out but the people across the street (have power)." While power was restored more quickly to the majority of customers, the longest outage duration for…
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
As part of efforts to restore the peregrine falcon population in Wisconsin, We Energies provides nests for the birds and tracks their progress.
Greg Septon stepped onto the roof of the We Energies power plant in Port Washington Monday flanked by photographers and a man wagging a broom in the air to ward off an angry falcon mother. He fetched four baby peregrine falcons from their nest and returned to a meeting room in the building for a tagging process that for him has become routine. For 26 years, Septon has been working to restore what was a dwindling-near-extinction population of peregrine falcons in the state, through the Wisconsin Peregrine Falcon Recovery Project. Septon encourages power plants such as the We Energies plant in Port to set up box nests for falcons, as they have difficulty surviving in the wild. The location is ideal because the birds like to nest atop cliffs …
Greg
10:52 am on Wednesday, August 1, 2012
YEP!! more ›