April 18, 2024 3:20 a.m.

The Umpqua Valley Audubon Society and Roseburg Public Library invite the community to “Recovering the World’s Fastest Bird of Prey: Adventures with Peregrin Falcons” on Wednesday April 24th at 6:30 p.m.

A City release said the event will be hosted by Bob Sallinger. Sallinger has been working to protect birds across Oregon for more than three decades. He is currently the director of Bird Conservation Oregon, an organization he founded in 2023. Before that, Sallinger worked as conservation director at the Audubon Society of Portland, where his responsibilities included overseeing local, state and federal policy initiatives, litigation, community science initiatives and the busiest wildlife hospital in Oregon.

Sallinger says that Peregrin falcons are the fastest animals on earth when diving at speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. He said they were nearly driven to extinction in the 1950s and 1960s by the use of the pesticide DDT.

Sallinger began working with peregrines in the early 1990s, when they were critically endangered and has continued over the course of career, as they have made an incredible comeback.

Learn more about Bird Conservation Oregon on their website: www.birdconservationoregon.org.

The program will be held at the library on Northeast Diamond Lake Boulevard. It is free and open to the public. For more information contact library staff at 492-7050.

To learn more about the Umpqua Valley Audubon Society, go to: www.umpquaadubon.org.