Peregrine Watching at Tarentum

This week the best place for peregrine watching in Pittsburgh has been at the boat ramp under the Tarentum Bridge.  The birds have been active in the cooler weather with lots of flight practice and a little less squawking.

As usual the peregrine who regularly comes close is Hope, the mother peregrine who was born on a bridge in Hopewell, Virgina.  Here she watches Sean Dicer as he takes her picture.

Hope also has an interesting habit of choosing various perches under the bridge, then disappearing into her favorite cubbyhole in the structure.

I made a quick slideshow of Sean’s photos so you can see her flying into the cubbyhole.  (The slideshow repeats; you can watch her do it over and over again.)

What’s her fascination with that hole?  Maybe it’s a cache area with a tasty treat inside.  Maybe it’s a quiet place where her “kids” can’t harass her.

This weekend the temperature will be in the 90’s so visit the bridge in the cool of the morning or evening for your best chance at watching the Tarentum peregrines.

Maybe Hope will come close and watch you back.

(photos by Sean Dicer)

One thought on “Peregrine Watching at Tarentum

  1. Hope will definitely watch you back! 🙂

    Yesterday morning while John English and I were at the marina, Hope came in and was on a crossbeam over the driveway again. John went over by the guardrail of the exit ramp and I was still in the parking lot, so we were watching her from 2 different directions. After a brief while she started turning slightly and looking at him, then me, and back and forth for quite a while, quite rapidly. Then she took off and went and hid, and John’s comment was “I’ll show you 2 bozos with binoculars!” But she came back out again after a while!

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