The peregrine eggs at the University of Pittsburgh began hatching tonight.
Here is Dorothy and E2’s first chick, just hatched at 11:20pm, in a nighttime snapshot illuminated by infrared light.
The chick has flapped and moved its wing as Dorothy bends over it (red arrow). Its head is resting on the eggshell. We could even hear it peeping on the webcam.
See more pictures below. Watch the webcam here.
Happy Hatch Day!
<= Dorothy looks down at the chick still inside the egg shell.
April 22, 11:18am, Dorothy feeds her first chick of 2010. Notice the pip holes in two of the other eggs. The pip hole in one of them is facing away a little.
April 22, 11:57am. Two peregrine chicks have just hatched. Dorothy allows them to dry.
April 22, 3:06pm. Dorothy feeds four hungry babies. Only one egg is left to hatch.
(photos from the National Aviary webcam at University of Pittsburgh)
Awesome, now things will start getting interesting again after 5 weeks of sitting. Just checked the camera a minute ago and saw the shell laying next to Dorothy’s wing.
Go, little birdies, go!
Congratulations Dorothy & E2!
Alot of nites I don’t sleep so well; good to be excited. Dorothy looks so frazzled . They are such good parents. Such a wonderful sharing we all do. Faith.
How exciting!!! 🙂
Dorothy and E2 were SO restless yesterday afternoon and evening. Dorothy was making strange, soft little sounds. It seemed like the time was getting closer. I just couldn’t stay awake to watch any longer.
A big congrats to the new parents! Their world just got a lot busier!
After a long waite we finaly get to see the chicks! Do we know how soon after hatching the chicks need to be fed? I hear the little one chipping a lot.
Chicks are not fed at night. This one hatched at night so it is waiting for its first breakfast.
Beautiful! Thanks, Kate, for keeping us updated. It’s wonderful to have streaming video and audio this year, and especially wonderful to have hotspots so we can share special moments with other peregrine watchers.
What a wonderful Happy Earth Day present!!! I haven’t been able to see the chick yet, but I’ve seen the egg shell. Now the exciting part has finally arrived. If all five eggs hatch, Dorothy and E2 will be very, very busy!!
Just checked in and saw Dorothy scootching around and eventually saw the little one. Looked like she stepped on it but most likely just came close. Heard it cheeping too. It will soon be very noisy there with 5 littles ones all clammering for food. Great!!!
darn,, i watched all day i went to bed 20 minutes too early,,,,, xoxo
The baby is being fed right now!!!
OMG! One of them just brought a dead bird in and is feeding the wee one!
So insanely cute.
Feeding time! How small it looks & how fast they will grow up in just a few weeks from now.
Looking at the first chick now-Mom or Dad didn’t seem to want to feed it too much & heard it cheeping. I’m not sure but one of the other eggs either has something on the top of it or possibly the egg is starting to crack so if that’s the case there maybe another chick born today sometime
I just got to see a parent (I assume it was E2) bring a bird to the nest and feed the chick. It was thrilling!! Got to see that only one chick has hatched so far too.
Most recent image shows Dorothy feeding the chick. There are pip holes in two of the other eggs. They will hatch soon.
Beautiful picture, Kate.
Kate, I just saw an egg hatch!! The first time for me to see such a wonderous sight. I’m usually an after-the-fact viewer. How amazing!! Thanks to the Aviary for making it possible.
Looking at the webcam now, there appear to be at least 2 broken eggs laying around Dorothy.
looks at least 2 more chicks have hatched. I’m seeing what looks like 4 egg halves at 12:17 PM EST
At this point (12:30pm on Thurs 4/22) at last 3 out of 5 have hatched. Maybe even a fourth hatched, but we’ll have to get a view f the scrape before we’ll know.
I think another chick just hatched–2:25 pm!
Have all of the eggs hatched?
4 out of 5 have hatched as of 2:25 pm.
It looks like Dorothy has pushed the 1 egg aside-she isn’t laying on it & it isn’t broken open. I guess she has decided that it won’t hatch?
No, she still has one unhatched egg. The eggs you see are broken shells of the ones that hatched already. You can’t see the last egg because she is staying on top of it.
WOW! As Jan C. wrote, what an EXCELLENT Happy Earth Day Birthday! Anne
It looked to me like Dorothy pushed the 5th egg away from the others today at about 12:03 p.m.
Dorothy is sunning at 12:36pm. I can see the 5th egg in the scrape with the chicks.
Oops, meant to say “away from the chicks.” Thanks, Kate.
I was just watching the 4 little guys have lunch and caught a glimpse of the 5th egg in the scrape. I was coming over to post a picture, but I Kate beat me to it. The fifth egg is still in the midst of the little guys. Maybe the only reason I even saw it here is because they all went to the shaded side when E2 brought in a tasty morsel to share.
I’ve discovered that if I watch the live feed along with the still shot, the angles are different enough that I often can see something in the still that I can’t see in the live feed. And I love have the audio–kind of like a baby monitor to let me know when to switch over…
Every once in a while you’ll notice the streaming video is a little behind the snapshots. That’s because it has to be encoded from the camera, sent to South Africa (location of WildEarth.TV) and then back here again.
What’s the odd behavior with one of the falcon’s wings spread and panting? Around 2:05-2:10 pm 04/23.
2:20 PM, a rather amusing site. It appears 1 falcon it brooding the chicks in the shade while the other is sprawled out sunbathing in the sunny part of the scrape. Wasn’t sure how to do a screen capture (or even if I can) so I just used the printscreen feature and got a couple snapshote. Not sure how I’d post them though.
J is right. E2 is sunbathing. See this FAQ: http://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/peregrine-faqs/question-why-is-this-bird-face-down-on-her-nest/
On another note:
Bald eagle pair nesting in Allegheny County
Friday, April 23, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The state Game Commission announced today that a pair of bald eagles have established a nest in Allegheny County.
“While bald eagles are not an uncommon sight as they hunt for fish in the Three Rivers area of Pittsburgh, this is the first confirmed nesting pair of bald eagles in Allegheny County,” Gary Fujak, commission wildlife conservation officer for western Allegheny County, said in a news release. “The nest is in Crescent Township, but – in order to protect the nest from disturbances – we are not going to disclose the exact location, and we are working with the landowner to keep the area secure.”
Matt Hough, Game Commission southwest region director, said this marks the third new nest in the region.