This week it’s been “All peregrines, all the time” but falcons aren’t the only birds of prey nesting around Schenley Park.

Down the road on the other side of Phipps Conservatory there’s a red-tailed hawks’ nest with two young birds that soon will fly.  If you’ve walked near the pond under the Panther Hollow Bridge you’ve probably heard their whistle-whine.  “Come feed me!”

In late April they hadn’t hatched yet when I encountered Gregg Diskin with his camera in Schenley Park.  He told me he planned to photograph the nestlings as they matured.

Because their stick-nest is deep it wasn’t possible to see them until they were tall enough to look over the rim.  At first they were fluffy white, just like baby peregrines, but now they’ve grown feathers to match their parents’ coloration. In Gregg’s photo above they’re about halfway there.

At last they are full grown.  When I saw them yesterday they were at the gawky stage —  fully feathered with downy fluff on their heads — and they were whining loudly.  Their voices echo under the bridge.

If you’d like to see them, walk the valley under the Panther Hollow Bridge and look up.  But don’t pause on the path where there’s a lot of bird poop.  You don’t want to be in “poot” range.  (Click here to see.)

(photos by Gregory Diskin)