Tonight’s webcam chat was a lot of fun and very informative.  Here’s a big thank you to everyone who participated, especially…

• Thank you to Traci (tld) for coordinating the whole thing from inception to reality. 
• Thanks to Marianne (jetta), Jennie (mindysmom) and Donna (sno_leopard) who are in the chat every day, greeting everyone and helping with answers and news.  Their contributions make the Cathedral of Learning chat a great community.
• Thank you to all of you for posting your excellent questions.
• And a special thanks to Dr. Todd Katzner for sharing his time and knowledge.

And finally, a thank you to Dorothy and E2 for showing us such a heart-warming scene of peregrine family life. 

While we were chatting, both adult peregrines brought food to their five chicks for the last feeding of the day.  As we watched, Dorothy and E2 fed them together (pictured above).  What great parents!

(photo from the National Aviary webcam at the Cathedral of Learning)

Here are some quick tips for telling the difference between the two adult peregrines on the Gulf Tower falconcam.

Dori, the female, is on the left, her mate Louie is on the right.  These clues are listed in order of importance:

• Dori has white patches where her wings meet her body.  They are almost like “headlights” because they stand out when she faces you.
• Louie does not have white patches near his wings.  Instead he has a large white patch on the nape of his neck.  You can see this easily when he bows.
• Dori is much larger than Louie.  The next photo is a side-by-side example showing the difference.  Notice Dori’s long wingtips and tail.  When she stands or turns in the nest box her tail often touches the wall.
• And (as Mary DeV reminded me in a comment) Louie’s beak is a brighter yellow than Dori’s.

Here are two more photos showing Dori, then Louie, in the same scrape.  She is large!  He is small.  Female peregrines are larger than males.

I have written their band numbers on the photos even though it’s nearly impossible to read them on camera.

If you see both birds together you can identify them immediately by size, as shown in the photo below. Dori is huge. No wonder Louie bows low!

Watch them online here and see if you can tell the difference.

(photos from the National Aviary webcam at the Gulf Tower. Thanks to Marianne Atkinson for capturing the big bowing screen shot.)

The last of Dorothy’s five eggs hatched overnight so now she and her mate E2 have five baby peregrines to feed.

Breakfast was served at 6:20 this morning.  Click on any photo above to see the slideshow full-screen. (The slideshow repeats until you close it.)

(photo from the National Aviary webcam at University of Pittsburgh)

p.s. Here’s a favorite photo.

It’s been a beautiful sunny day here with highs in the mid 60s. 

Sunshine is rare — and it’ll rain this weekend — so lots of people are out sunbathing at Schenley Plaza across the street from the Cathedral of Learning.  They aren’t the only ones.

Early this afternoon both Dorothy and E2 took turns sunbathing on the nest gravel.  Here’s a photo of E2 sunbathing while Dorothy broods the chicks. 

Can you see in the photo how E2 and one of the chicks are looking at each other?  That little bird is having some quality time with Mom and Dad.

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And here’s proof there is still one unhatched egg.  It was laid approximately two days after incubation had already started so it needs more time before it’ll hatch.  That will probably be tomorrow, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t hatch at all.  Some years Dorothy has an egg that doesn’t hatch.

(photos from the National Aviary snapshot cam at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning)

The peregrine eggs at the University of Pittsburgh began hatching tonight. 

Here is Dorothy and E2’s first chick, just hatched at 11:20pm, in a nighttime snapshot illuminated by infrared light.

The chick has flapped and moved its wing as Dorothy bends over it (red arrow).  Its head is resting on the eggshell.  We could even hear it peeping on the webcam. 

See more pictures below.  Watch the webcam here.

Happy Hatch Day!

 <= Dorothy looks down at the chick still inside the egg shell.

April 22, 11:18am, Dorothy feeds her first chick of 2010. Notice the pip holes in two of the other eggs. The pip hole in one of them is facing away a little.

April 22, 11:57am. Two peregrine chicks have just hatched.  Dorothy allows them to dry.

April 22, 3:06pm. Dorothy feeds four hungry babies. Only one egg is left to hatch.

(photos from the National Aviary webcam at University of Pittsburgh)