First Fledge at Pitt!


At 6:35pm the juvenile male peregrine at the Cathedral of Learning made his first flight.

Peter Bell, Mary DeVaughn and I just happened to be looking up when the juvie pumped his way to the northeast side of the building.  Wow!

He must have done well because his dad, perched on the lightning rod, watched him fly but didn’t feel the need follow and see if he was OK.  (The parents do follow and check on them if they see something going wrong.)

(photo by Donna Memon)

10 thoughts on “First Fledge at Pitt!

  1. Glad he made it to a safe landing! There are 3 back at the nest tonight (9PM); will he stay at his current location for the night?

  2. He’ll stay where he is (it’s probably cooler over there!) but I’ll bet he’ll be back at breakfast time.

  3. So much excitement! I can’t wait to come down on Friday!

    Thanks to all for the great pics and reports from Kate. It is almost like being there! 🙂

  4. I missed it by 20 minutes! Sigh… Oh well, one down, three more chances to go. Glad to hear his first flight was a safe one 🙂

  5. Hi Kate – If a parent does see a juvie might be having a hard time or possibly running out of enough energy to land safely, will they dive and catch them? And can they do it without hurting them?

  6. No, the parents don’t catch their kids. They teach them as best they can but in the end the first flight is like the first time a teenager has the car keys without an adult in the car. The kid “knows” what to do but he doesn’t have much experience and he’s on his own.

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