The young peregrines at the University of Pittsburgh are flying and doing well.  Sometimes they play games in the air, chasing each other and pretending to exchange food.  They also chase their parents.

Needless to say Dorothy and E2 are busy trying to keep the “kids” fed. 

Steve Valasek captured this photo of Dorothy on Sunday as she checked on their whereabouts. 

And this morning Jack and Sue Solomon saw one of the adults (I’ll bet it was E2) at Duck Hollow on the Monongahela River, plucking a meal as he flew toward the Cathedral of Learning. 

Busy, busy!

The youngsters are still staying close to home so you’re likely to see them if you come to campus. 

Check the lower roof edges of the Cathedral of Learning or the steeple on Heinz Chapel and you’ll probably find a peregrine.

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p.s. June 9, 2:00pm:  The juveniles were perched on both steeples of St. Paul’s Cathedral.  They’re widening their range.

June 11, 8:30am: Four juveniles have been hanging out at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Webster Hall and an apartment building nearby — seen yesterday at lunch and this morning before work.

(photo by Steve Valasek)

If you were watching the Gulf Tower webcam between 9:00am and 10:00am this morning you’ll have noticed a lot of excitement. 

Today was Banding Day.  All five peregrine chicks got new jewelry on their ankles, though not without a lot of shouting.  The whole family raised a ruckus.

Even before the event the father bird, Louie, was suspicious.  He’d already witnessed eight banding days in the years he’s nested at the Gulf Tower.  This was the ninth and he knew that lots of noise inside the building meant his kids were about to be taken from the nest. 

Louie stood guard atop the web camera, then enlisted Dori’s help. 

Dori guarded from the nestbox roof but she didn’t know what to expect.  She’s a new mother, new to the Gulf Tower and new to what happens on Banding Day. 

When Beth Fife and Doug Dunkerley came out on the ledge, Dori jumped down to the gravel but immediately flew out to attack from the air.  Her attacks were relentless but ineffective in keeping the humans away from her babies.  Since she didn’t stay on the nest, Dori was not captured as her predecessor Tasha normally was.

Indoors the chicks were examined, weighed and banded.  Beth held the chicks while Doug applied the bands.  In this photo Beth is holding one of the females who was temporarily quiet. 

All the nestlings are in good health:  Three boys and two girls, just like at Pitt this year. 

Before returning the chicks to the nest Beth pulled out the weeds and gathered the garbage but there was hardly any prey to analyze — just a lot of leafy weeds. 

Obviously Dori is a better housekeeper than her neighbor Dorothy at Pitt.

(photo by Kate St. John)

Last Friday the 25th floor roof of the Cathedral of Learning was a hotspot of peregrine fledgling activity.  Each of the fledglings visited the roof and their parents stopped by to check on them. 

Most of the birds perched and preened but when Green Boy arrived he caused a stir.  As usual.

You may remember Green Boy.  He’s the Prodigal Son who fell in the gully on May 26 and climbed out on his own.  Then he had to be rescued on June 1 from a courtyard near the Office of the Chancellor.  We don’t know what he did for the next three days but on Friday he surfaced again.

Around noon he flew to the 25th floor roof and made it his business to explore it on foot.  He climbed piles of roof tiles, poked in the corners and spent hours trying to perch on slippery metal pipes. 

In the process he got close to a pigeons’ nest.  Movement caught his eye.  “What’s that?”

From afar the pigeon parents saw him and flew in to block his advance.  “Stay away!” they said.

Undaunted, Green Boy stepped forward and both pigeons jumped on him.  He rolled on his back and fought with his talons.  The pigeons couldn’t hurt him but Green Boy was startled so he ran away.  How embarrassing to be chased by what should be your dinner!

Later he tried again.  He had to see what was over there.  When a pigeon arrived to challenge him, Green Boy stood his ground and shouted, “I’m tellin’ ya, leave me alone!”

Oh, Green Boy, you’ve got a lot to learn!

(photo by Kimberly Thomas)

Birds seem to land where they want to without effort, but that’s not the case when flying is new to them.

Landing is a lot harder than it looks.

Kim Steininger captured the trials and tribulations of a young peregrine who landed on a spot too narrow for comfort.  Click on her photo to see a slideshow from Wilmington, Delaware a few years ago.  It repeats after four frames.

What does a young peregrine do next? Fly again and choose a better landing place.  Practice makes perfect.

(all photos by Kim Steininger)

The Pitt peregrines are learning fast.  By lunchtime yesterday three out of five had flown from the nestrail. 

Last evening we saw one of the juveniles land on the lightning rod and pursue his parents whenever they returned to the Cathedral of Learning.  Dorothy tested him with a practice prey exchange, but he flunked and she had to re-catch the meal he nearly lost to the ground.

Here are some photos from yesterday’s Fledge Watch and the subsequent thunderstorms. 

Traci Darin sent pictures of Fledge Watch.  In this collection, one of the parents watches his “kids” from the lightning rod, three of the five youngsters lounge on the nestrail, and a fledgling tries his wings on the edge of the 38th floor.

Late in the day, two big thunderstorms came through Pittsburgh and dropped more than 2″ of rain.  During the first storm, one of the Pitt fledglings was still perched on Heinz Chapel steeple where he got very wet but was otherwise unaffected, as you can see from Peter Bell’s photo taken just after the rain.

Meanwhile at the Gulf Tower nest, you can see the lightning and hear thunder in this archived video.

And to give you an idea of the storms’ intensity, here’s a photo Donna Memon took from Mount Washington as the second storm moved east of town.  That lightning was probably hitting Squirrel Hill.

(photos by Traci Darin, Peter Bell and Donna Memon)

News from today’s lunchtime Fledge Watch:  We saw the best flying to date!

• Happily we were able to count all five young peregrines.  Two have flown and three were still lounging and flapping on the nestrail.
• One fledgling had his first off-the-building adventure.  He flew to Heinz Chapel and, after a few passes at it, he landed on one of the knobs on the steeple.
• Dorothy and E2 demonstrated soaring over Schenley Plaza.  It was nice to see them closer.
• Shortly after the soaring demonstration, the second fledgling flew off the Cathedral of Learning and soared very high before returning to the east side of the roof.

Come on down to the Schenley Plaza tent and watch the young peregrines learn to fly.  I won’t be there after work today but there will still be a group of folks who know these peregrines and can help you find them on the parapets.

p.s. at 4:30pm:  A severe tunderstorm is coming through soon … so no Fledge Watch right now.

We take for granted that nestling peregrines are always healthy but sometimes they catch a parasite from the birds they eat.

Avian trichomoniasis (Trichomonas gallinae) is a protozoan that infects mostly pigeons and doves but can be caught by the raptors who eat them.  It’s generally a disease of the young and can be fatal because its lesions block the throat of the victim until he starves.  In young birds this happens rapidly.  In the few older birds who become infected, the lesions may invade the jaw, causing holes in the jawbone.  Interestingly, these holes were discovered on T. rex fossils and established another link between dinosaurs and birds.

Pictured above is one of Harrisburg’s peregrine parents, looking in the window of the Rachel Carson Office Building where his youngsters were taken yesterday. 

When the nestlings were banded on May 26, the banders discovered that one nestling had trichomoniasis.  He was treated with a dose of antibiotic but it was not enough to cure him.  Yesterday he and his brothers were re-examined.  His siblings are still healthy and were returned to the nest.  He was retained for treatment.

“Bring him back!” say his parents.

Not until he’s healthy again.

(photo from the Harrisburg PA Falconcam.  Thanks to Donna Memon and Marianne Atkinson for alerting me to this Harrisburg news.)