Saving San Francisco's Favorite Falcons

On the San Francisco Bay Bridge today, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone, rescuers gathered to save a family in danger.

Going over the edge, 200 feet above the water, they eased beneath the bridge — toward three eggs. They were peregrine falcon eggs, laid in a perilous place where strong winds can blow the young birds into the water.

That's not a safe place, says Glenn Stewart of the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Rescue Group.

"They drown," he says of what can happen to the baby birds. "We've seen it happen — it's a sad thing. We don't want that to happen again."

San Franciscans certainly didn't want it to happen to a family of falcons they have come to know and love. For two years, the city has watched the young offspring of a pair of falcons known as George and Gracie, who set up housekeeping atop a downtown office building.

From his office window, Glenn Nevill became fascinated by the birds.

"We got see them play with each other," he says. "We got to see the mother teach one of the sons how to dive."

When Web cams were set up over their nests, George and Gracie, and their young, became stars of the Internet.

"Everyone seems to have caught on," Stewart says. "People come up to me and say 'I didn't know I was a bird watcher until I started watching these falcons on my computer.'"

But for some reason, George and Gracie decided this year to move out of the city and get a place with a water view. For those who have worked to bring falcons back from the brink of extinction, it was too much of a risk.

Brian Latta of the Santa Cruz research group says he doesn't feel guilty about taking away their babies.

"We've been doing this for a couple of decades, 30 years, basically, and they get over it very quickly," he says.

The eggs will be hatched in an incubator. When the birds are old enough, they'll be released into the wild — joining other offspring of George and Gracie in the peregrine falcon's impressive recovery.