On Tuesday afternoon, March 21st, Steve Gosser was lucky to be near the Tarentum Bridge when a pair of peregrines showed up. He was even luckier to photograph them mating.
This closeup shows that the male is banded, the female is not.
No, we don’t know who the male is. The photo is too distant to read his bands even when Steve blows it up.
But I have an idea about the female. In the closeup you can see she has lots of stripes and speckles on her breast that are similar to the unbanded female intruder who’s been visiting the Cathedral of Learning for the past year. Here are two views of that female from her March 16th visit.
Could the Tarentum female be the same bird that visits Pitt?
We need more photos and observers to know for sure. If you’d like to help, click here for a map of the best viewing location for the Tarentum peregrines.
(photo by Steve Gosser)
I am really wondering about the viability of those eggs at the Cathedral of Learning. What is going on ?
Judy, there is a marked difference in temperature between the the Gulf Tower nest and the Cathedral of Learning nest on a sunny day. The Gulf Tower nest faces northeast, has little direct sunlight and lots of wind, especially during a north wind like we had yesterday. The Cathedral of Learning nest faces south, is in full sun and is very sheltered from wind in all directions. The Gulf nest requires constant incubation in March and April. The parents at the Pitt nest can take a break occasionally in sunny days.
Thank you for the explanation-I appreciate hearing that !
I’ll blog more about this in the days ahead — probably on Sunday.
I saw 1 PEFA on last Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday evenings.
I did suspect there were 2 present on Monday because the one PEFA I could see was dining on the downriver navlight beam and then there was screeching, and he flew up with the food to the back side of a support beam under the bridge deck on the downriver side, and I’m pretty sure he came back to the navlight beam without it.
I watched the PEFA on the navlight beam from 6:10 til 6:40 and the flight to the underdeck was at 6:26 PM.
Wonder if the male is Terzo?
Robin, no it’s not Terzo. I can tell by his face.
Aw, I hope that is the Cathedral intruder – makes me happy to think she’s found her own place after all! Whoever it is, is it unusual that they’re only mating now? (I’m assuming no, but they’re obviously behind the Gulf Tower and Cathedral falcons …)
Stacyj, they’re not really late. And we don’t know what stage she’s in with egg laying.
And Hope was very busy there are 4 eggs in the scrape. I hope all will be well this season.
What happened to the egg on far left at the Cathedral nest? Or is that a camera glitch?
Jennifer, peregrine eggs are variable because the reddish color is added to the shell as it’s being formed. That egg didn’t get as much red-color.
Here’s a Peregrine FAQ that explains the color: http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/peregrine-faqs/question-why-are-the-eggs-red/
I’m reading an interesting book on egg development in birds; from the very start of the process continuing all the way to hatching. The part on how color is added to the eggs was particularly interesting. The book is “The Most Perfect Thing” by Tim Birkhead.
I think egg #4 is covered in bird poo. Hope lifted her tail at 3:14 AM, revealing an egg, and about 15 seconds later a white streak ran down the egg
Megan, that explains it even better than I can!
For Robin above – RE: Terzo
You can also tell the male in Tarentum is NOT Terzo because his left leg band is black/green. Terzo’s left leg band is black/red.
Its going to be a busy nest time with 5 eggs at gulf nest and 4 at Pitt and not sure how many will be laid at bridge. Lots of new babies hopefully. Pigeons need to be very very afraid. Will be very interesting for those of us who love peregrines and want them to continue to grow in number.