18 March 2025
The peregrines at East Liberty Presbyterian Church steeple are very active as they prepare to nest.
A week ago on 11 March Jeff Cieslak stopped by and found both birds at home.
He caught one in the act of landing on its favorite floodlight.
And Jeff saw them doing a lot of flying. Adam Knoerzer found out why.
The pair was vigilant on 11 March because a third peregrine showed up and took an interest in their territory. Adam captured a video of the encounter as the pair flew around chirping and drove the intruder toward Morningside/Stanton Heights and the Allegheny River. Turn up the volume to heard their territorial sound. The chirp sounds “happy” but it is not!
Yesterday, 18 March, Adam saw the male flying a lot and both of them perched in their favorite spots.
The female wanted to mate again.
After they mated, the male stopped by the nest.
Don’t let the sticks fool you. Peregrines don’t use sticks but the ledge is sloped and this old red-tailed hawk nest prevents the eggs from rolling off the building. Last year they fledged one youngster from this nest.
Stop by East Liberty to check out the action. With all this mating, eggs are surely on the way
p.s. Brief Update from Downtown Pittsburgh, Third Avenue
On 11 March I viewed Downtown’s Third Avenue nest using my scope from Mt Washington and saw one peregrine dig the scrape and wait on the ledge.
