26 January 2025
Since 2021 a pair of peregrines has claimed the Sewickley Bridge as their territory but there’s never been a successful nest. Jeff Cieslak photographs the peregrines at this site and confirmed last April that the male was banded (black/green 05/S) and hatched at Pitt in 2010.
When the nest failed again in 2024 and Jeff heard that PennDOT was going to repair the bridge, he contacted the PA Game Commission and PennDOT to see if they’d put up a nestbox. And they did!
Here’s the story and photos from Jeff Cieslak at Our Daily Bird on Facebook:
“BIG NEWS: I can’t take any credit for constructing or installing it, but I will take 100% of the credit for making it happen at all: PennDOT installed a falcon nest box on the southern pier of the Sewickley Bridge. The pair nesting there for the past several years have not been able to raise any young, due to a dearth of good nesting sites. But they try every year, so when PennDOT announced that they were closing the bridge last April to do some expansion joint work, I contacted them to let them know that it seemed that there was an active nesting attempt going on (though I was pretty sure it would fail). At the end of a meeting with PennDOT, the PA Game Commission, and myself, PennDOT agreed to install a nest box under the PAGC’s direction. Apparently, they installed it in the fall — but I just found out about it last week and went to see it today.
“Nesting season will start in earnest around the beginning of March, but they might start checking the box out sooner. It would have been great to see one hanging out in the vicinity of the box today, but the falcons weren’t around this morning.
“Construction photos from PennDOT.”
— Jeff Cieslak, Our Daily Bird on Facebook, 12 January 2025
Early this month Mark Young at PennDOT sent Jeff these photos which were taken during the installation on 1 November 2024.
Jeff checked it out on Saturday 11 January and sent me this map of the best place to view the nestbox area.
… and this is what you can see though binoculars or a zoom lens.
Peregrine nesting season is heating up. Stay tuned or visit the site yourself to see what’s up.
For more news and a daily dose of birds, follow Jeff Cieslak’s Our Daily Bird on Facebook.