UPDATE ON 22 MAY 2019: On May 20 Lori Maggio got a photo of the chicks and Art McMorris was able to age them so the Call To Action below is no longer desperate. Stop by if you get a chance and you might get a great photo of peregrines.
Can you spare five minutes to look at the back of a building in Downtown Pittsburgh?
This year’s peregrine nest is again at Third Avenue, only 12 stories high. The location is so low that on first flight, a few of the chicks always land on the street and have to be placed on the Rescue Porch to start over. I’d like to schedule a Downtown Fledge Watch to help these youngsters, but I don’t know when they’ll reach the Fledge Watch stage. That’s where you come in.
Several days before young peregrines fly, they appear at the nest opening (location of yellow arrow).
It only takes five minutes — with binoculars or camera — to stop by the Third Avenue sidewalk at the edge of the Carlyle parking lot and look up at the nest opening. Is there a juvenile there? If so, leave a comment on this blog. Please take a picture. I’ll get an expert to look at your photo and tell us the age of the chicks.
What to look for: Juveniles are brown-and-cream-colored birds like the ones in this closeup from 2016. When they first appear, they’ll have downy white fuzz clinging to them.
Don’t confuse them with their parents. The adults are sleek charcoal gray and white, like this.
There’s no need to linger. All it takes is five minutes. Let me know what you see.
(photo of Third Avenue site by Kate St. John. photos of Downtown peregrines by Lori Maggio)
And don’t confuse them with the blob of insulation stuck to the side wall! Ha!
We are located on Boulevard of the Allies and we have heard Dori and another peregrine ALL day! They keep flying around and perching. I’m not very educated on the subject, but do you know what the other bird’s name may be and what they are doing?
Sandi, here’s what I found out. The peregrines are nesting on Third Ave about two blocks away. The birds could see workmen on the roof of a nearby building and that upset them because, to them, humans are their enemy. The roofers are not directly disturbing the peregrines but the peregrines can see them and they are worried so they are shouting. (Last year humans took their chicks away.) By 4pm the workmen were gone and the peregrines were quiet again. If you hear the peregrines shouting on Tuesday it means the roofers aren’t done yet.