Based on our own observations and telemetry data from the PA Game Commission, I always thought the immature peregrines left town permanently by the end of July.
Not so with this one. He came back to visit the nest box at the University of Pittsburgh on August 4th.
Thanks to motion detection at the Aviary’s webcam – which is turned on but not feeding the website – this youngster’s one minute visit was captured in photos. I was able to read his bands in the bottom photo before I resized it for the blog.
He’s 35/X, the remaining juvenile male. (His brother died on June 24.)
Perhaps he was hoping for an easy handout from his parents, but as far as we can tell they avoided him. I can imagine they said, “Don’t come crying to us! It’s about time you got a job.”
p.s. on August 11: This morning I saw a juvenile begging at the Cathedral of Learning. The adult ate most of the prey and the juvenile got the leftovers. Looks like this bird still hasn’t left town.
Heh. Perhaps he wanted to say goodbye to his birthplace one last time before departing for parts unknown. I also had a question. As you’ve mentioned in earlier blog entries, the peregrine chicks born at the Cathedral and the Gulf Tower are not given names when they are born typically only receiving names once they begin nesting elsewhere. So I was wondering how Louie got his name being as he was born at the cathedral?
Louie got his name when he nested at Gulf Tower. He was named by those who monitored him at the time.