Midday on Friday January 12, when it was unseasonably warm, Dave Brooke went down to the Tarentum Bridge and found a lot of ice flowing by on the Allegheny River. He also found a pair of peregrines standing on it.
Soon, one of them took off and flew near him on its way up the river.
At the bird’s closest approach it revealed its bands — black/green 48/BR. They indicate he/she hatched at the Westinghouse Bridge in 2014, offspring of Hecla (Ironton-Russelton Bridge, 2009) and an unidentified male. Click here for Banding Day photos. 48/BR is the one in the back.
Congratulations to Dave Brooke for capturing beautiful photos of these peregrines and for identifying one of them at the Tarentum Bridge!
UPDATE ON 15 JANUARY 2018! News from Art McMorris indicates that band 48/BR is typically a female band but the sex of the bird was hard to determine at the time so Art used a female band just in case. 48/BR is male. See January 17’s article: Tarentum Peregrine 48/BR is Male
(photos by Dave Brooke)
p.s. In case you’re wondering if Hope, the female peregrine at Pitt, will visit her old haunts in Tarentum, she’s probably too busy. While Dave was photographing the new pair at the bridge, Hope and Terzo were courting at the Cathedral of Learning.
Respectfully, aren’t they on ice floes (not flows)?
Wonderful pics and great new information to place them in context!
Thank you.
Nat, thanks for the spelling correction. I thought it looked wrong but spellcheck didn’t catch it. I’ve changed it.
Psssttt…Kate….those are ice “floes.” Even if they ARE “flowing” down the river 😉
Mary, I’ve fixed it.
Thanks to Dave for the great pix!
This is another notable changeover in birds – the previous female PEFA after 69Z seen at Tarentum was unbanded!
Any thoughts as to why they were sitting on the ice floes. Just because they were there?
No, I’ve no idea. Curiosity? Maybe.
What happened to Magnum who used to be at the Tarentum Bridge, and since the new female is banded and identified will she get a name?
Peggy, Magnum is at Neville Island. Hope used to be at Tarentum. I don’t know if the new female at Tarentum will be named. (That’s a decision of the site monitor & will depend on whether she stays.) She can certainly be called 48/BR at this point.
More news for Peggy: Art McMorris says that the sex of the bird was hard to tell at the time so he used a female band — 48/BR — just in case. In other words, the bird might be male.
Learning so much. Great pictures