20 March 2025

Schenley Owlet flying

The Schenley Park owlet, who spent two weeks in rehab at Tamarack and came home on 11 March, has been making fast progress. Many have seen her roosting in trees this week and assume she must have flown to get there, but we never see it. She only moves in the dark. Fortunately, Dana Nesiti captured a video of her in flight before sunrise on Tuesday. He slowed down the video so you can see her.

And click here for Dana’s 10 minute video of her chilling in Schenley Park.

Pitt peregrines not incubating yet

Carla laid two eggs at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest on 16 and 18 March and a third egg is due this evening.

However, we’ve seen both parents cover the eggs and we know incubation begins when the next to last egg is laid. Are they incubating? Is Carla going to lay only 3 eggs?

As of this morning, 20 March, we have nighttime evidence that the peregrines are not incubating yet. Both were off the eggs the majority of the time last night as seen in this time lapse video.

When peregrines are truly incubating they open the feathers that cover their brood patches before laying down to place their skin on the eggs. If they don’t, those feathers keep the eggs from reaching incubation temperature.

On the falconcam it is impossible to see if their skin is touching eggs but we can tell if they are opening the feathers. Watch for them to bob their bodies before they lay down. Ecco does this in a more exaggerated way than Carla.

Speaking of Ecco, did you notice that he relieved Carla around 3am? The literature says that the female incubates all night, but not last night. Peregrines can always surprise us.