A week ago, on March 3, I began to lose faith that the Downtown Pittsburgh peregrines were going to nest at the Gulf Tower this year.
Peregrines had nested there for 21 years (1991 – 2011) but they abandoned the site in 2012 during installation of the new rooftop lighting scheme and chose a nook on Third Avenue (front on Fourth Avenue). We feared this new site was permanent because they nested there in 2012 and 2013.
The Third Avenue site is inaccessible to humans but difficult for fledglings. It’s lower than the Gulf Tower so fledglings have a hard time staying above the ground on their first day of flight. Three of last year’s four fledglings had to be rescued. It’s also unfortunate for observers because there’s no falconcam for watching the nest.
We had high hopes that the peregrines would return to the Gulf Tower when they spent many days courting there in February, but on March 2 they abruptly changed gears and began focusing their attention at Third Avenue. Oh no! For a week they were never in the Gulf Tower motion detection snapshots. I stopped by Third Avenue yesterday and found a peregrine perched at the old nook opening. Oh no! It looked like they were about to choose Third Avenue again.
This morning I checked the Gulf Tower camera to make sure it was on daylight savings time and behold, Dori was at the nest with an egg!!
I was so surprised I could barely believe my eyes!
Just to be sure, I captured several snapshots including Louie’s first visit before dawn.
Dori has come home!!
Join the fun. Watch the Gulf Tower nest here.
(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at the Gulf Tower)
p.s. Thanks to Gulf Tower management for making this site so attractive to our downtown peregrines.
What wonderful news!
What great news. Can’t wait to watch this year.
WOOO HOOO!!!!! I wish I could get back into the USX tower to take pictures
A great way to start the week. Now it’s Dorothy’s turn 😉
Geez, now I wish we had a nice new hi-definition camera on the Gulf nest, too!
A project for next year maybe! 🙂
Wonderful news!
Just wanted to ask if there is a snapshot cam at the Gulf Tower…I can’t stream video at work and the only way I can watch the nests during the day is with the snapshot cam.
Good to see them back at Gulf Tower. (Unless Louie has been taking advice from the male peregrine in Rochester NY and has another girlfriend at the Fourth Ave. site, so there would be 2 nests in the area….probably too close for that, though)
Mary Ann
Mary Ann, try this link: http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org_slideshows/dntnpp.html
I have also put it in the list of Resources on the left panel of my blog.
That works…the picture is a little smaller than the one from Pitt. And it seems to be refreshing every minute, not every 15 seconds, but I’m happy to be able to see it at all. Thanks!
By the way, I never really noticed before, but the nest box on the Gulf Tower seems to be a good bit bigger than the one at Pitt.
Thanks for the feedback, Mary Ann. I have corrected the size and frequency of the Gulf Tower snapshots. They aren’t as sharp as Pitt’s but that is because we cannot disturb the nest to clean the camera at Gulf.
This is just such good news, Kate.
Awesome. Epic. Gnarly 🙂 Other adjectives will wait till I see you.
Nice. I saw Dori hanging out at the nest box early yesterday afternoon. At first she was just standing in the scrape then she appeared to be doing some landscaping picking at the weeds growing in near the front and right side of the box.
Yay! I just saw this and I’m so excited. I have been following your blogs and the Peregrine Falcons for several years now and was so hoping they would come back to the Gulf Tower nest box. Any news on Dorothy and E2? Thanks for sharing! 🙂
So excited to see a second egg!!