2 September 2024
Yesterday’s cooler weather was a welcome relief after the long heat wave. Carla and Ecco took advantage of the breeze to spend time in the sun at the Pitt peregrine nest.
Carla preened and the pair bowed to cement their bond as seen in this slideshow.
29 August 2024
It’s been another hot week with muggy high temperatures and more to come. Birds are adapting by bathing, hanging out in the shade, and avoiding activity during the worst part of the day.
Some birds who live where it’s hot and dry have adapted their bodies to help them cool off. Read about their special air conditioner nasal passages in this 2017 article.
p.s. Yesterday morning when it was 84°F and felt like 86°, Ecco took a sun bath to heat his feathers and force out the parasites. Aaaaaaah. And then he adjourned to the shade to preen them away.
2 August 2024
Yesterday it was at or near 90°F for most of the day. No peregrines were visible when I walked around the Cathedral of Learning at 11am but by 5:45pm the nestbox area had been in the shade for several hours and had cooled off enough to attract Ecco and Carla.
Peregrines are not courting at this time of year but when a pair stays on territory year round they develop and maintain their pair bond through bowing at the nest. Yesterday they bowed for eight minutes at 5:45pm, then joined each other for 16 minutes at 6:20pm.
Hey there, Carla.
Hey there, Ecco.
23 July 2024
The Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) has been monitoring Virginia’s peregrine population every year since the late 1970s. Because they track individual adults, they know who breeds where and when they go missing. This year the news was disturbing. Peregrine adult turnover statewide more than doubled in one year to a new rate of 40%. Forty percent of the adults disappeared (died) and were replaced by a new bird.
The only good news is that the high rate is skewed by the incredibly high turnover of 63.2% on the Eastern Shore while the rest of the state was 12.5%. The bad news is that the Eastern Shore has the highest concentration of breeding peregrines in Virginia.
The map below, from Virginia peregrine falcon monitoring and management program: Year 2017 report on ResearchGate, shows peregrine territories in 2017. There are more territories nowadays but the relative concentration remains.
Recoveries of dead and dying peregrines indicate the culprit is avian flu, a problem experienced in other states as well.
Why is avian flu taking a toll on the coast but not inland? Read why in this blog at the Center for Conservation Biology.
p.s. I have not heard of this problem occurring in Pennsylvania, perhaps because our turnover rate mirrors Virginia’s inland statistics.
In 2023, out of 35 breeding pairs in Virginia statewide, 26 were on the coastal plain.
9 July 2024
July is usually a boring month for peregrines in Pittsburgh. It’s hot. Nest duties are over. The adults are molting. But this week there are two bits of news.
Monaca-East Rochester Bridge:
On Monday morning, 8 July, Jeff Cieslak checked for peregrines along the Ohio River and stopped by the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge. He usually looks on the Monaca (south) side but yesterday he checked East Rochester (north) as well. There he found two fledglings and one adult, pictured here.
The Monaca fledglings appear to be about 4-5 weeks younger than those at Pitt, putting their hatch date in late May and egg laying in mid-to-late April. Such a late nest makes me wonder if the first nest failed or if there was upheaval at this site with a change of partners that took until April to settle down. We’ll never know.
Cathedral of Learning: What was she looking at?
On Sunday 7 July Carla visited the nest from 5:08p to 7:36pm. In that 90 minute period she was very alert when jumped she up to the snapshot camera. I wonder what she was looking at.
p.s. You’ll notice Carla’s feathers aren’t particularly smooth. She’s molting.
5 July 2024
At the Cathedral of Learning the adult peregrines, Ecco and Carla, are staying close to home as they molt in the summer heat. Their two youngsters have been flying now for almost five weeks and are hunting on their own, widening their range until they disperse to peregrinate for two years.
Nowadays I rarely see the Pitt juvies so I was happy to discover that “Yellow” stopped by briefly on Tuesday 2 July as seen in the slideshow above. It’s been more than a month since our youngsters walked off camera. No one on the falconcam. So here’s a little video delight.
C&C Saladin recorded these youngsters at the Terminal Tower in Cleveland on 25 June. Almost a month younger than the Pitt juvies, these two had not fledged yet. C&C Saladin describe that they’re doing.
These two male juvenile peregrines, here at 36 days old, demonstrate their curiosity and their instinctive ability to track moving objects as they watch two barn swallows that were flying around and catching bugs near the nest ledge. They also demonstrate their distractibility, as each takes a moment to stretch. The slightly more developed (less downy) juvie stretches after the juvie on the left, also showing their imitative behavior.
— description from C&C Saladin on YouTube
28 June 2024
If you watch peregrines you know how improbable it is that you will ever see one make its first flight. In 23 years of watching peregrines I’ve seen it once, maybe twice. I have no photographic evidence but I know of two Pittsburgh examples.
In June 2022 Dana Nesiti captured the moment of first flight at Westinghouse Bridge, above. This year on 2 June, Jenna Burdette happened to be taking a cellphone video of the second chick flapping at the Cathedral of Learning when it fledged at 6:58pm.
So what does it look like when a peregrine chick makes its first flight? Wakefield Cathedral, UK (@WfldPeregrines) has so many cameras on their peregrines that the moment was captured on 17 June.
First flight at 5:34. pic.twitter.com/NcwLsvsEOR
— Wakefield Peregrines (@WfldPeregrines) June 17, 2024
First flight is so unremarkable that you might not realize what you’re looking at.
However, it is remarkable to see juvies chasing and playing in the sky just a few days after their first flight. Watch them fly in this video from Charing Cross Hospital in London (Fulham and Barnes Peregrines).
PFV and ZAS playing early this morning (around 5:40am). pic.twitter.com/7SbJBLl3Us
— FaB Peregrines (@FaBPeregrines) May 29, 2024
26 June 2024
Peregrine season is wrapping up with confirmation of breeding in one location and a bunch of “pair only” sightings in the Ohio River valley.
East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh:
Adam Knoerzer confirmed one chick at the nest in early June but hadn’t seen any sign of it since the 17th. Then on Monday evening 24 June, Adam was near East Liberty Presbyterian Church and confirmed “Juvie Alive and Well.”
After hearing a lot of noise, I noticed the juvie perched on a low tower on the Penn Ave side and the male dropping some food. We later saw [the juvie] fly back up to the nest.
— email from Adam Knoerzer, 24 June 2024
Adam’s photo at top shows where the young peregrine was perched. Congratulations to the East Liberty peregrines and nest monitor Adam Knoerzer!
Brunot Island RR Bridge / Eckert / McKees Rocks, Ohio River:
The Eckert Street peregrines went missing this spring but there are many nest site choices within a mile of that site. Jeff Cieslak tried to find them with no luck but on 13 June Andy Moore (author of Pawpaw: In Search of America’s Forgotten Fruit and the upcoming book Beasts in the East) photographed a pair of peregrines at the Brunot Island Railroad Bridge.
Jeff Cieslak started checking Brunot Island and has seen the pair as recently as Sunday 23 June. Jeff remarked “I’m pretty sure the female from Eckert is there, with a young male.” No evidence of young.
Spruce Run Bridge, Ohio River: This pair is present every time Jeff Cieslak stops by, most recently 23 June. This pair is an adult female with a 1-year-old male. No young at this site.
Monaca-East Rochester Bridge, Ohio River:
On 16 June Tim Johnson saw a pair of peregrines near the Monaca East Rochester Bridge and on 24 June Jeff Cieslak photographed them. There is no evidence of young this year.
West End Bridge, Ohio River: Remember that banded peregrine Jeff Cieslak photographed here on 13 June? Its bands have been traced to Baltimore, Maryland, but it hasn’t been seen since. No peregrines at the West End Bridge.
PEREGRINE SUMMARY FOR SOUTHWEST PA: This is probably the final update for 2024. Many of these sites did not have successful nests.
23 June 2024
Yesterday morning when the heat index was 96°F, Carla sunbathed for 20 minutes at the Pitt peregrine nest. Her fanned tail shows us why she was doing it. Not only does sunbathing kill feather lice, it eases the discomfort of molting. Carla is molting her tail feathers two at a time.
Carla began her sunbathing session after she and Ecco bowed briefly over the scrape. She might have stayed longer but her youngster “Blue” showed up. Carla and Ecco are both avoiding their “kids” in an effort to make them independent.
(photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
This summer you might see songbirds looking stunned on your lawn or roof. They’ll be molting too.
Aaaaaah, that feels good.
19 June 2024
It’s been eleven days since my last regional peregrine update. Here are just a few of the sites. More to come in the days ahead.
Cathedral of Learning, Univ of Pittsburgh:
The juvies have made a lot of progress since 11 June when Liz Adams took this photo of one of shouting from the 32nd/33rd floor parapet. Such a lazy bird! On its belly demanding room service! It eventually flew away toward Carnegie Museum.
This week both juvies harassed a crow at Bayard and Bellefield and chased their parents around the top of the Cathedral of Learning. By the time I snapped this photo they were out of the frame.
They’ve learned how to hunt at this point but it’s a lot harder than wheedling food from their parents. On Monday they figured out that Ecco hides from them at the nest so they both invaded. Ecco shouted and left immediately. See the slideshow of their antics.
Juvenile Pitt peregrines invade the nest, 17 June 2024 (photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Downtown Pittsburgh:
On Monday morning 10 June PGC’s Patti Barber emailed that a Downtown juvie had been rescued from the ground and placed up high again. This Monday, 17 June, Matthew DiGiacomo heard a juvie peregrine calling overhead and posted this photo of it on Pittsburgh Falconuts Facebook page.
First, I heard the distinctive call. Didn’t take long to spot it soaring above the Forbes Avenue Garage.
— Matthew Digiacomo posted to Pittsburgh Falconuts Facebook page, 17 June 2024
East Liberty Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh: No photos available but Adam Knoerzer wrote yesterday, 18 June:
In E Liberty now — the young one was definitely flapping wings yesterday and exercising, and I can’t see a thing in the nest today. The female is perched much lower than usual today on the eastern face, and I wonder if perhaps the young one tried to fledge and is somewhere on a low roof.
The female is in a decidedly unusual spot for her — and she has some prey in her clutches but isn’t eating it. I did briefly hear vocalizing, but it wasn’t very long or intense.
I guess it’s possible that the chick is lying flat due to the heat or something, but yesterday it was pretty easy to see it anywhere due to its size.
— email from Adam Knoerzer, 18 June 2024, 6pm
West End Bridge, Ohio River: On 13 June Jeff Cieslak photographed a solo peregrine at the West End Bridge. It is banded Black/Green and appears to be “xC/20”. (The “x” means I can’t read that letter. Jeff digitally flipped the band rightside up.) Did I read the band correctly? Do any of you know this bird?
Rt 40 Bridge, West Brownsville, Monongahela River:
On 1 June five birders visited the Rt 40 Bridge to watch the peregrine family of four. When Fred Kachmarik visited on the 9th and 15th of June the two youngsters were doing well.
There is a 60% mortality rate among peregrines in their first year of life so the loss of a chick is, unfortunately, an expected outcome.
