9 July 2024
July is usually a boring month for peregrines in Pittsburgh. It’s hot. Nest duties are over. The adults are molting. But this week there are two bits of news.
Monaca-East Rochester Bridge:
On Monday morning, 8 July, Jeff Cieslak checked for peregrines along the Ohio River and stopped by the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge. He usually looks on the Monaca (south) side but yesterday he checked East Rochester (north) as well. There he found two fledglings and one adult, pictured here.
The Monaca fledglings appear to be about 4-5 weeks younger than those at Pitt, putting their hatch date in late May and egg laying in mid-to-late April. Such a late nest makes me wonder if the first nest failed or if there was upheaval at this site with a change of partners that took until April to settle down. We’ll never know.
Cathedral of Learning: What was she looking at?
On Sunday 7 July Carla visited the nest from 5:08p to 7:36pm. In that 90 minute period she was very alert when jumped she up to the snapshot camera. I wonder what she was looking at.
p.s. You’ll notice Carla’s feathers aren’t particularly smooth. She’s molting.
Beautiful! Thank you for capturing all this Wonder!
We are so lucky to have so many involved keeping an eye on all our birds and especially the Pittsburgh area Peregrines!!