After 30 hours down, the streaming camera at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning is up again –> http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php
It was an adventure. 🙂
After 30 hours down, the streaming camera at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning is up again –> http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php
It was an adventure. 🙂
Great to have that camera on again. I just got a quick look at the nest at the Gulf Tower when Dori and Louis changed places and it looks like they have 6 eggs in there! Let me know if I’m wrong.
Today I got confirmation from Make-A-Wish that there are only 5 eggs. I wonder what magic is going on that several people have seen six?
Thanks for getting the camera back up Kate!
Yes! Thank you very much! I can only imagine what you had to go through to get to it to do the reboot.
Ditto the previous comments saying thank you for going through contortions to get the cam running again. I really enjoy seeing the Peregrines in real time!
Last night, I checked in to see the Gulf Site and was mystified at what looked like a white bird figure on a stick, in the nest near the right edge. In the daylight it looks like it could be made of white feathers, but it still looks like it is on a stick. Maybe it is another optical illusion. Also, at 1:40pm I happened to check on the Cathedral site, and saw E2 come to the nest, be distracted by what sounded like a third falcon, challenging call, and he took off without sitting on the eggs.
Carlana, that white thing at the Gulf nest does indeed look like a bird. It might be part of a bird leftover from a prior meal — maybe pieces left elsewhere that blew into the nest during Friday’s windy thunderstorms.
I have seen that figure for a few days. Look like a small plant to me – rooftop garden maybe?
It’s a plant. (It’s green in daylight.)
The nestbox has the original gravel from 1991 and it has collected a lot of seeds. Every year the nestbox grows into a jungle by July. Here’s a picture from Sept 2003. Notice that there’s something white in the picture that looks very similar (there’s a peregrine looking at or eating the white thing). In this case I think the white thing is part of a pigeon.
I also like this camera angle which shows that the area near the left side pillar is a perch with a view.
The perspective would indicate that the white thing is a flower, which looks very similar to the wild hibiscus that grows in my yard. It’s a flowering plant!! How fascinating! Reminds me of those ‘Earth after Man’ series on Discovery…where they show how wildlife and nature would simply consume Man’s buildings…
This would have been taken 7 years ago – I guess the nutrients the gravel had just didn’t sustain that little shrub over the years. I don’t recall this much growth being in the box last year.
Great photo!
Actually, the nestbox is “weeded” every year so we can see the nest.
Thanks for solving the mystery. I would never have guessed a plant. We had just had the tremendous wind storms, and I wondered how the birds, eggs and gravel kept from being blown off.