Now that Pittsburgh’s on-camera peregrines are incubating eggs — and a little boring — you may have time to watch some other nests.
Here’s news from just of few of the many on-camera peregrine nests on the Internet:
- Rochester, New York’s Times Square Building is home to Beauty and Archer, pictured here. Beauty, who hatched at the Cathedral of Learning in 2007, stays in Rochester all year long but Archer leaves for the winter so they’ve been getting reacquainted since his return on March 12. Rochester (hometown of Kodak) has a great camera setup with five streaming cameras, blogs, forums and archives, all at Rfalconcam. No eggs yet, but they’re expected soon!
- Cleveland, Ohio’s Terminal Tower is home to SW (female) and Boomer. SW hatched at Pittsburgh’s Gulf Tower in 1999 and is currently incubating four eggs. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History hosts three cameras at the CMNH-Falconcam and a Forum with news and photos of peregrines in Ohio and around the world.
- The Rachel Carson Office Building in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania is home to a pair of peregrines who finished laying four eggs on March 18. PA Falcon Cam provides video streaming at the nest from two cameras, plus a photo gallery and news. One of the cameras is zoomed so close that you can see the peregrine breathing as it incubates.
- Wilmington, Delaware has a pair of peregrines with five eggs at the Brandywine Building. The female of this pair was born in Harrisburg, PA, the male was born in this nest box! See daily updates and photos on the Wilmington Falcons blog and watch the streaming camera here.
- The Peregrine Fund has a streaming camera at One Capital Center in Boise, Idaho which is best viewed using Internet Explorer (not Firefox!). Idaho is two timezones behind us so their peregrines will still be awake while ours are sleeping.
- The webcams in Canada aren’t live yet, but a selection of cameras can be found here at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation.
- And finally, if you’re awake at 1:30am Eastern time, the sun is about to rise in England and you can watch the Derby Cathedral peregrines start their day. Derby, UK is 5 hours ahead of us so these birds will be asleep long before our sunset. Or maybe not… They’re famous for hunting at night(*). No eggs yet, but they’re imminent.
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to get distracted from what you intended to do on your computer. 😉
(photo of Archer and Beauty from Rfalconcam in Rochester, New York)
(*) See the comments for a link to the blog+video of hunting at night …and… for links to even MORE falconcams.
How exciting! Another pair of falcons in Hartford, CT are currently incubating 4 eggs at the Travelers Tower nest box.
The male resident is named “Goldeneye.” He was born at the Colonnade Building site in Golden Valley, MN and banded on 05.28.98 (band # 2206-41015). The female attendant has no name, but came from the Ideal Box Company building in Lawrence, MA. She was banded as a nestling on 06.04.03 (band # 0987-98050).
They have been at the Travelers Tower since 2007.
I posted a link below to the website with up-to-date webcam photos (by the minute), but they aren’t particularly good at posting regular updates on their blog. The “About” section still talks about the former falcon resident, Amelia, who hasn’t been around since 2006.
http://falconcam.travelers.com/
Excellent post Kate! Though I fear that my productivity at work may be severely impacted in the next several months 😉
The Derby peregrines hunt at night? How interesting. I skimmed the website, but couldn’t find any information on that. Can you fill us in on that a little more, Kate?
Here’s the blog + video of a Derby Cathedral peregrine hunting at night, January 2010:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/2010/01/world-first-for-derbys-falcons.html
Thanks for providing links and info about many peregrine cams! (Some I didn’t even know about!)
We don’t have a webcam here in Hamilton (Ontario), but we do have a camera that refreshes every few seconds. We’ve had a pair of Peregrines nesting in downtown Hamilton since 1995; they’ve been working on their scrape for the last few days:
http://falcons.hamiltonnature.org/
Nairn
Oh Kate, I could kiss you!!! I lost all my peregrine sites when my wonderful husband was building a new “puter! So when I logged on this morning for the first time in weeks, and saw your list of sites, it was all I could hope to find and more. Even Derby!!! And I can access more through the Peregrine forum. Thank You a million times. I was really afraid I had lost these sites and I really need to have a haven now more than ever. You don’t know what you have given me. I won’t kiss you but thank you a gazillion times for your wonderful work and enjoyment for me in the mornings. Kat
Really interesting information about the Derby peregrines! Wouldn’t it be nice to have another camera in Pittsburgh showing the perch areas? Maybe then we could capture similar footage.
Do you have anything from the webcams in Columbus OH? My 2 grandkids live there, and I’ve been trying to interest them in their peregrines.
Here’s the link to the falconcam on the Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus, Ohio:
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/dow/falcons/columbus.aspx
Thanks for the added great info on Peregrines Kate. Here’s another web site for watching some other birds of prey: http://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/index.html
🙂
Oh yes thank you for all these additional sites. The nite feeding film was really interesting, gory but then these are predatory birds. With my being tied almost 24/7 indoors it is a window to a different place to be at times when you can’t be anywhere else. Thanks again Kate.
Thank you very much Kate for this excellent and detailed list of cameras!
We now also have a webcam in London, UK, on the pair which also uses the Parliament as perching and hunting grounds:
http://www.carnyx.tv/CarnyxWild/WildlifeCameras/London.aspx
It is their second year there, they fledged 4 youngsters last year, one of which relocated 8 miles away. They currently have 3 eggs.
Camera has sound and infra-red.
More about the pair here: http://parliamentperegrinediary.blogspot.com/
Another site in UK, with multiple cameras, though not streaming ones, but including perch ones:
http://www.worcester.gov.uk/peregrine/
No breeding activity yet this year.
Nathalie
Wow! Thank you Kate!
what a great blog today and equally great comments from peregrine fans! As Monika said… my productivity, both at home and at work, may be severely compromised for the next few months.
And Donna, I agree.. a perch view cam would be great (as would hotspots… just saying! 🙂 )
Wow Michelle, you guys have a Kestrel Cam? This is amazing!
@Donna & Anne Marie: Perch view cam would be great indeed. I was blown away by the footage that the Rochester cams capture. I won’t lie, I have a bit of falconcam envy. 😉 Pittsburgh is the home of the National Aviary, I think our falcons deserve more camera time 🙂
Ok Kate…..here’s news from Belmar, NJ. I was the one concerned about a local peregrine that may have “lost” its mate and perhaps its chance to breed this year. Well, today I indeed encountered visual evidence to the contrary. I spotted the 2 peregrines mating on the aforementioned bridge pilings. One peregrine was also investigating a ledge—one which will afford fairly good views for human observers on the ground (yay)—I had observed them on previously in the fall. I believe it will be their chosen nest site if all goes well. They might be a little behind schedule, but I am supposing that this may be normal for a probably new pair and a definitely new nesting site. I can’t believe I missed out on the pair binding rituals of spring (aerial displays, etc…) as I have been pretty vigilant in keeping an eye on the skies. Still, makes for something to look forward to for next year!
That’s great news, Kelly. Sounds like they’ve been acting sneaky… and if they’re that sneaky now, they will virtually disappear when they’re on eggs.
Rochester NY update: Beauty laid her first egg of the season tonight about 7:37pm!