Falcons Over lake Hennessey

Falcons Over Lake Hennessey celebrates an endangered species success story!

In 1975, there were estimated to be only five known mated pairs of Peregrine Falcons in California. The species teetered dangerously on the edge of extinction. An immediate ban on DDT use in California and various breeding programs have replenished this noble raptor’s numbers (now estimated at 300 pairs in California) and facilitated its removal from the state’s endangered list.

Falcons Over Lake Hennessey is the brainchild of Chappellet Artist in Residence, Julia Crane. Julia saw the geometric patterns and symmetry of a newly planted vineyard and wanted to highlight a multi-piece work of art on top of the metal vineyard posts. 

Inspired by a bird that lit on top of one of the vineyard posts. Julia decided to research birds in California and discovered the story of the Peregrine Falcon's plight. Julia commissioned a ceramics studio in Southern California to produce 100 slip-cast duplicates (a process in which watered-down ceramic clay is poured into plaster molds to form a cast copy) from five original plasticine-clay Peregrine Falcon sculptures that she made. The cast falcons had not been fired or cured, so they were highly fragile, essentially mud, and designed to dissolve over time with rain, sun, and weather. As the falcons were being cast, a small amount of dirt from the Pritchard Hill Vineyard was added to the clay mixture, so the falcon sculptures were, at least in part, of the same earth to which they would eventually return. Sending the message of what would have happened to the Peregrine species had humans not intervened.

For the moment, the Peregrine Falcons are  out of immediate danger. The 100 “mud” falcons disappeared in a rainstorm in October 2016. This demonstration reminds us of what nearly happened had humans not made changes to help the survival of this majestic and vulnerable species.