12 April 2026
Adam Knoerzer monitoring every day. On 9 March he watched them fly around their territory and on 19 March he saw them bowing at the nest.
But on 2 April Adam wrote, “Dead quiet all week at East Liberty. Haven’t seen a single falcon the three times I’ve dropped by this week between 4-6pm.” It also looked like the sticks were gone.
Peregrine absence in those first days of April is not normal. In prior years the female laid eggs during that time. We wondered what was happening so Adam asked Ed Moore at East Liberty Presbyterian Church if he could check on the nest area.
On 8 April Ed sent the photo at right below and wrote, “Hi, Adam. Nothing up there. This pic is the ledge they were on last year. I checked all four corners and nothing.”
Two photos below show Before and After. At left is the nest with young in 2025. Notice the substrate that’s almost like mulch. At right is the same area now, circled in blue. It is completely empty.
What happened? My guess is the Wind!
The peregrines were using the remnants of a former red-tailed hawks’ nest which was built on the sloped steeple and held up by big sticks rimming the outside. The nest was located on the northeast corner which provided the best protection from Pittsburgh’s prevailing southwest winds as well as strong west winds.
In this Google satellite screenshot the steeple has a yellow arrow pointing to the nest location and green arrows for west winds. Unfortunately the nest was not protected from strong north winds, turquoise arrows below.
March was a stormy month with at least two storms that took down trees that blocked the roads. Statistics from one of those storms shows how bad the wind was.
On the night of 31 March a thunderstorm began with strong west winds at 43mph gusting to 58mph at 11:45pm. Five minutes later the wind had switched to the north gusting to 52 mph for another five minutes. The north wind is certainly a threat to the nest … if it was still there by that point.
Late in March or early April the East Liberty peregrines became homeless and had to find a new nest site because the female was ready to lay eggs. They could see a prime nest site not many miles away — the Cathedral of Learning — but it was already occupied. What to do? Harass the current residents to make them leave.
Apparently that harassment is in progress but it isn’t working yet. Over the past two weeks I’ve seen Carla and Ecco both step away from the eggs for a few moments to check the sky. Sometimes the parent on the eggs leaves the nest and the other one arrives. At one point when it was quite warm they were both gone for about an hour.
For Carla and Ecco retaining the nest site is more important than anything and they will put their all into it. Ideally the former East Liberty peregrines will find a nearby bridge to their liking.
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