The weather turned cold and snowy last night but Pittsburgh’s peregrines are warming up for nesting. Here’s the news from nest sites around our area.
Downtown Pittsburgh:
The Downtown peregrines own the entire city with many potential nest sites from the rivers to the Hill District. This week they’ve been visiting the Gulf Tower nest. That doesn’t mean they’ll nest there but it does mean they haven’t rejected the idea so we have our fingers crossed. Watch for peregrine activity at their three known nest sites to get a clue as to which site they’ll choose next month: Gulf Tower (on camera), Third Avenue between Smithfield and Wood Streets, and Fifth Avenue at Scrip Way. As far as we know this pair is still Louie and Dori, but things could change.
Cathedral of Learning:
Hope and Terzo have been courting in flight and on camera at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning. Hope often visits the nest alone and calls to Terzo to join her. They’re warming up to egg laying next month.
McKees Rocks Bridge:
Peregrines are usually hard to see at the McKees Rocks Bridge but Leslie Ferree got lucky. She saw one perched on the bridge abutment on January 30, above, and on the bridge structure on January 25. Maybe the pair will be more visible this year.
Neville Island I-79 Bridge:
Anne Marie Bosnyak reports that two peregrines were perched on a tree near the Neville Island Bridge on January 29. The pair at this site are Magnum and Beau, confirmed in May 2015. However, that could change. Magnum tried to claim the Cathedral of Learning last June.
Tarentum Bridge:
Rob Protz reported two peregrines perched on the up-river navigation lights on the evening of January 29. Who are these birds? We don’t know. The male is definitely a mystery. The female, however, is sometimes Hope who visits her old home at the Tarentum Bridge. We’re hoping for photographs of the Tarentum birds so we can read their bands.
Watch for peregrines at these nine sites in western Pennsylvania. Let me know what you see!
- Downtown Pittsburgh
- Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh
- Westinghouse Bridge, Allegheny County
- McKees Rocks Bridge, Allegheny County
- Neville Island I-79 Bridge, Allegheny County
- Monaca-E.Rochester Bridge, Beaver County
- Tarentum Bridge, Allegheny-Westmoreland County
- The Graff Bridge, Route 422 Kittanning, Armstrong County
- Erie, PA Waterfront, Erie County
(photos from the National Aviary falconcams at the Gulf Tower and University of Pittsburgh, McKees Rocks photo by Leslie Ferree)
We were driving across the Neville Island 79 bridge on 2/7 and had a peregrine at eye level fly with us.
On 1/30 at 12:30 pm, both Downtown peregrines were at the 3rd Ave nest site. One on the nest ledge and the other on one of the green beams.
I’ ve been keeping on eye on the Greentree water tower, just in case.
Kate, my father in law lives in Lawrence County (but really close to Beaver County). He told me he saw a peregrine in/near his backyard bird feeder. Is that possible? Are there any known nest sites near enough? Thanks!
Erika, there are many possibilities. It may have been a bird that closely resembles a young peregrine, for instance an immature Coopers hawk. (Coopers hawks hunt at bird feeders much more than peregrines do.) Or it may have been an “unattached” peregrine traveling widely in search of a nest site. Or there might be a nest site near there but we don’t know it because no one’s watching. Keep watching to find out.
Thanks, Kate! Great info. I’ll have my father in law keep an eye out. Maybe he’ll be able to get a picture!
I just saw what looked to me like a falcon in my yard in Leetsdale. I have video but I don’t know who to send it to.