We had great fun at Celebrate Pittsburgh’s Peregrines at WQED on Monday night.  Here are some pictures from the event.

To put them in context for those who could not attend, I did most of the talking but my visuals were slides and a video (of a peregrine stooping!) both of which look pretty boring in photographs.

The real paparazzi star was Horace the lanner falcon from the National Aviary, pictured here on Cathy Schlott’s glove.  Lanner falcons are slightly smaller and paler than peregrines.  He showed us what a live falcon looks like.

Horace is one of the birds Cathy is training for the National Aviary’s new outdoor flight show called Sky Deck which will open on Memorial Day weekend.  She chose lanner falcons for the show instead of peregrines because lanners maneuver closer to the ground than peregrines and will be easier for the audience to see.   I can hardly wait to see him fly this summer!

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And here are some pictures of my lecture showing me, the size of the crowd, and part of my presentation.

I talked about the history of Pittsburgh’s peregrines, their lifestyle during the nesting season, and our favorite webcam stars: Dorothy and E2 at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning, and Louie and Dori at the Gulf Tower.

Thanks to everyone who attended and especially to the National Aviary for introducing us to Horace.

It was really fun.  Let’s do this again some time!

(Photos of Horace and me by Sharon Leadbitter. Photos of the lecture by Kristine Masta and Amanda Morgan).

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