7 May 2021

We know that peregrines are nesting in the Tarentum Bridge nestbox, circled above, thanks to observations and photos by Dave Brooke. On Friday 6 May, he wrote:

Yesterday (5 May 2021) I was able to see 2 young falcons in the box from Riverside Park. Both were all grey with black eyes. They walked inside the box and stretched their wings. They also shot poop out of the box. [They] can be seen in the right corner in this video I digiscoped. From your chicks aging blog Kate, these two would appear to be older than the Pitt young. … There could be a third.

— email from Dave Brooke, 6 May 2021

In Dave’s video you can see a chick’s head moving at the bottom right corner of the box opening. Do you see two?

On the same day at the Cathedral of Learning nest, the chicks were active but not walking around alone nor were they stretching their wings. The Pitt chicks hatched on 25 April. Based on behavior they are clearly younger than the chicks at Tarentum.

Using the descriptions and photos here — Peregrine Chicks Week-to-Week Development — can you guess how old the Tarentum chicks are?

(photo of the Tarentum Bridge by Amber Van Strien Treese, videos from Dave Brooke and the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)