Nickelhütte Aue GmbH participates in the Environmental and Climate Alliance Saxony. The aim of the voluntary cooperation between the Free State of Saxony and the Saxon economy is a forward-looking and environmentally friendly development of Saxony as a business location.
Like all of our native birds of prey, the peregrine falcon is a protected species. For many reasons, but primarily due to the damaging effects of certain pesticides that enter the bird's body when it eats, population numbers began to decline almost everywhere in the world around the middle of the last century, and it was threatened with extinction.
The species needs steep rock faces, quarries and high buildings to be able to breed.
Our factory chimney – essentially a man-made cliff – has a magnetic attraction for the birds. In 2007, after consulting an ornithologist, we decided to install a peregrine falcon nesting box on the side of the chimney, around 100 metres off the ground. And it worked – our first pair of peregrine falcons moved in two years later. Since then, the birds have visited every year during the mating and breeding season.
For anyone wanting to follow their progress, we provide updates and information on our nesting box here every year.