We’re still searching for the peregrines who nest in Downtown Pittsburgh. They left the Gulf Tower in March and we know they’re nesting … but where? Two weeks ago I posted this blog asking folks to… Look for Perching Peregrines.
Last Wednesday Diane P. left a comment saying she’d found a pair of falcons nesting in the facade of a building on Fifth Avenue across from Chatham Center. Within a few hours I was Downtown checking the area for peregrines.
From Duquesne University’s campus I saw a small bird of prey perched high on Chatham Center but the light was so poor that I couldn’t identify it. On Fifth Avenue I found this hole in the 1904 building.
Kestrel hole, 1904 building (photo by Kate St. John)
The next morning I stopped by Chatham Center plaza and saw the bird in better light on the same perch. It’s a small falcon, an American kestrel (Falco sparverius).
By luck Diane was out on the plaza, too, so we chatted about her discovery. Suddenly we heard a kestrel calling and both adults swooped into the nest. Then we heard the sounds of baby birds being fed. It’s a family!
Diane was so good at finding these small falcons that I hope she finds the big ones, too. (And I do hope the peregrines leave the kestrels alone!)
Two Osprey chicks call for food (photo by Cris Hamilton)
Did you know that ospreys suffered through the DDT pesticide crash and recovery just like bald eagles and peregrine falcons?
Ospreys are doing much better now than they did in 1986 when there was only one nest in Pennsylvania — but how much better are they doing? That’s where you come in.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission monitors this State Threatened species and they need to know where ospreys nest, especially in the western part of the state.
This PGC map shows the known nesting sites in 2015. Look at the gaps! For instance, is it possible that no ospreys nest in Armstrong County, home to the Allegheny River and Crooked Creek Lake? I’ll bet they nest in the county but PGC doesn’t know about them.
Ezra the red-tailed hawk incubates three eggs in Ithaca, NY (screenshot from nestcam via Cornell Lab)
In Ithaca, NY it’s been 38 days since Big Red, the red-tailed hawk, laid her first egg on March 13. Today one of her three eggs has a pip. Watch it hatch online!
Big Red and her mate Ezra nest on a light pole about 80 feet above an athletic field at Cornell University. They’ve attracted an online crowd ever since Cornell Lab began hosting their nestcam in 2012 at Cornell Lab Birdcams.
Click here or on the screenshot above to watch Big Red, Ezra and their growing family. Check out the Twitter feed on the right of their webpage for recent close-ups and videos from @CornellHawks.
Red-tailed hawk eggs hatch every other day so if you miss this first one there are two more eggs to watch.
Great horned owl and owlet, Homestead Grays Bridge, 15 April 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
If you haven’t been to The Waterfront to see the great horned owl nest on the Homestead Grays Bridge, go soon! The owlet is growing fast — as shown in these photos by Dana Nesiti on Friday, April 15.
Great horned owl and owlet, Homestead Grays Bridge, 15 April 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Great horned owl and owlet, Homestead Grays Bridge, 15 April 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Great horned owl and owlet, Homestead Grays Bridge, 15 April 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
The best viewing area is at the Three Rivers Heritage bike Trail to the right of the Red Robin restaurant at The Waterfront (175 E Waterfront Dr, Homestead, PA 15120).
Don’t miss your chance to see the owlet before he leaves the nest.
Thanks to Dana for sharing his photos. See Dana’s great photos of the Hays bald eagles at his Eagles of Hays PA Facebook page.
Red-tailed hawk takes off from Bill’s chimney (photo by Bill Barron)
Red-tailed hawks who live in the city are habituated to people. They go about their business hunting squirrels and eating pigeons — even on the ground — while we walk by or stand and gawk.
This spring a pair of red-tailed hawks is building a nest on Pitt’s campus. They experimented with a tree on the Cathedral of Learning lawn but by Tuesday it was clear they’d chosen the top of a large London plane tree next to the Student Union.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
Will the hawks ultimately use this nest? Will Pitt’s peregrines forbid them from gaining altitude so close to the Cathedral of Learning? (I’ve already seen Terzo hammer one of the hawks.) Will people notice the nest at all?
If the nest was close to the ground, the red-tails would become nervous about us walking below it and might threaten us to chase us away. This rarely happens but it’s memorable, as in this incident at Fenway Park eight years ago –> Red-tails Close to Home.
The red-tail nest on Pitt’s campus is way too high up for that. The hawks and the peregrines will have to work out their boundaries but we ground-based humans are of little interest to them.
Great horned owl adult and one owlet, 2 Apr 2016, Anderson Bridge, Schenley Park (photo by Kate St. John)
(If you subscribe to PABIRDS you saw this news over the weekend.)
After the great horned owl fledgling was rescued in Schenley Park on Tuesday March 29 and an adult was seen nearby on Thursday morning, I made it my mission to find the nest. At first I came up empty. There were no big stick nests in any of the hillside trees.
Then, late Friday afternoon I took another look at the underside of the Anderson Bridge.
Faintly through the trees I saw two owlets walking on a girder!
On Saturday I brought my scope and discovered that the “branching” owlets and their mother were quite visible from the Junction Hollow Bike Trail below the bridge. Here are two (lousy!) photographs I took through my scope.
Above, mother owl and one owlet pose on the girder. Below, the second owlet is perched just below the nest. Later he flew from girder to girder and landed near his mother. The blue box highlights him in the washed-out photo.
Second owlet at Anderson Bridge great horned owl nest, Schenley Park, 2 Apr 2016 (photo by Kate St. John)
On Sunday I visited the trail again and Nathan Mallory used my scope to take this photo of the two owlets sleeping. You can see their stick nest above them on the lattice.
Two great horned owlets sleeping near their nest under the Anderson Bridge, 3 Apr 2016 (photo by Nathan Mallory)
So there were three owlets in this nest. The first is in rehab. The other two will probably fly soon.
Two nestlings watch as parent bald eagle returns to the Hays nest (photo from Hays eaglecam)
By now it’s clear that the two nestlings in the Hays bald eagle nest are doing well but many of you wonder about the third unhatched egg. What will happen to it? Why hasn’t it hatched?
One unhatched egg is a fairly common occurrence in the nests of many birds. Some eggs are not fertile, some have developmental issues. There are many reasons. Birds often lay more eggs than actually hatch, perhaps as insurance against this rather common eventuality.
Among bald eagles, the need to brood the young for a week allows ample opportunity for remaining eggs to continue incubation and eventually hatch. While the adults brood the nestlings they can hear if an egg has a live bird in it because baby birds make peeping and hammering sounds inside the egg a day or more before hatching. Eggs that aren’t going to hatch are silent.
What happens to unhatched eggs? Birds are not emotional about them. When it’s obvious an egg won’t hatch, the family moves it around the nest for their convenience. In bald eagles’ nests it may eventually become buried under debris along with the remains of dinner.
What if it hatches now, more than a week late? Here’s the answer from the Audubon Society of Western PA on their Bald Eagles of Western PA Facebook page on March 30, 9:39pm:
“We’ve gotten many questions about the last egg in the Hays nest. At this point there are no good options for what can happen with that egg. Perhaps the egg is just not viable and will not hatch. But if the egg should hatch (there is still a remote possibility) the newly-hatched eaglet would have a difficult time thriving. It would be more than a week younger than its siblings, meaning it would be much smaller and have a hard time competing for available food. While nobody likes to hear this, it is nature and if we didn’t have a webcam focused on the nest, we wouldn’t even know it was happening. All we can do now is wait and see how it plays out…and be thankful for the two vibrant eaglets that we do have in Hays.” — eagles.aswp.org
The text above gives you a hint.
Knowing bald eagle family life as I do, my hope is that the third egg never hatches.
Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania Statement on the Remaining Egg in the Hays, PA Bald Eagle Nest
For immediate release, April 2, 2016.
There is one unhatched egg remaining in the Hays, PA Bald Eagle nest. The egg has gone one week past the typical 35 day incubation period and at this time, the adult eagles are no longer actively incubating the egg. Audubon believes that the egg is not viable and will not hatch.
While we will never know for certain why this egg did not hatch, it’s possible that it was not fertile from the start. An infertile egg cannot develop into an eaglet and the egg would thus be deemed non-viable. It’s also possible that something went wrong developmentally within the egg after it was laid.
Across the state in Hanover, it appears that their local Bald Eagles also have an egg that is not going to hatch. We do not believe that there is any connection between the non-hatchings in Hanover and Hays—it’s nothing more than a coincidence. Last year, both sides of Pennsylvania had abnormally cold winters, which we believe was one of the factors that led to an unsuccessful breeding season for our Pittsburgh Bald Eagles. But in 2015, the Hanover Bald Eagles raised and fledged young, while facing the same cold temperatures. Before webcams were pointed on these nests, we did not know what was happening inside of them. Today we can see nature at work—both the good and the hard, sometimes uncomfortable reality of it.
The positive news is that the Hays Bald Eagles have two healthy and vibrant eaglets in their nest—eaglets that are approaching two weeks old and growing every day. We look forward to watching their continued growth and development, and eventual fledging from the nest in early summer. The Hays Bald Eagles have successfully hatched six eaglets: one in 2013, three in 2015, and two in 2016. The unhatched egg will eventually be broken through activity in the nest—parents and eaglets moving around. The egg, like the shells of the hatched eaglets, will eventually become invisible within the nest. An image of the female Hays Bald Eagle and two eaglets is attached.
Watch Pittsburgh’s eagles at eagles.aswp.org. For additional information on the Hays and Harmar Bald Eagles, please visit our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/pittsburgheagles, where daily updates on both nests are posted. The Harmar Bald Eagles’ first egg is expected to hatch on our around April 13.
p.s. Celebrate bald eagles this weekend at Audubon Society of Western PA’s Beechwood (Allegheny County) and Succop (Butler County) locations with a free “Eagle Egg” Hunt and other activities.
On Saturday, April 2 at Beechwood: Egg hunts at 11 am, 12 pm, and 1 pm – bring a bag to collect eggs! Parking is at Fairview Elementary School, 738 Dorseyville Road. Shuttles will bring visitors to Beechwood Farms Nature Reserve. Please allow time for the shuttle to transport you to the event. The Pennsylvania Game Commission and PixController will be onsite, as well as a local chicken expert who will bring baby chickens! There will also be games, crafts, and activities. Register today for Beechwood!
On Sunday, April 3 at Succop: Egg hunt begins at 12 pm – bring a bag to collect eggs! Then participate in eagle-themed games, crafts, and activities. Register today for Succop!
Great horned owl on nest under the Homestead Grays Bridge, 27 March 2016 (photo by John English)
For months we thought the old red-tailed hawks’ nest under the Homestead Grays Bridge was abandoned, but last Sunday John English discovered it is very much occupied — by a great horned owl. John posted the photo above in the Duck Hollow Facebook group with this diagram of its location.
Location of nest under Homestead Grays Bridge (formerly called the Homestead High Level Bridge) as seen from Red Robin at The Waterfront. Duck Hollow is on right, across the river (photo by John English)
Dana Nesiti (EaglesofHaysPA) stopped by yesterday and got this beautiful shot of the mother owl. In this species, only the females incubate and brood. Father owl perches nearby during the day.
Great horned owl on nest under the Homestead Grays Bridge, 30 March 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Dana watched for 45 minutes and was rewarded with a glimpse of the tiny owlet — the round white head at center-right of the nest. I’m no expert but my guess is this owlet hatched 1-2 weeks ago.
Great horned owlet in nest under Homestead Grays Bridge, 30 March 2016 (photo by Dana Nesiti)
Meanwhile, not far away….
At midday on Monday Cathy Bubash posted a comment on my blog that there was an injured owl on the road at Schenley Park’s Anderson Playground. We traded email addresses and Cathy sent photos. Oh my! It’s not an injured adult. It’s a fledgling great horned owl!
Great horned owl fledgling, Schenley Park, 29 Mar 2016 (photo by Cathy Bubash)
He’s old enough to fly, though he isn’t very good at it. He appears to be about 8 weeks old.
Great horned owl fledgling in flight, Schenley Park, 29 Mar 2016 (photo by Cathy Bubash)
I visited the area at 4:30pm and found the owl safely perched on a hillside tree below the playground. His parents could find and feed him overnight … but where were they?
In all my visits to Schenley Park I’ve never encountered a great horned owl and never seen a nest. I rechecked two abandoned red-tailed nests on nearby bridges. Nothing.
On Tuesday morning the owl was back on the asphalt at Anderson Playground so Public Works employees wisely called the PA Game Commission who collected the owl and delivered it to ARL Wildlife Center for evaluation.
Great horned owl fledgling rescued at Schenley Park by PGC, 29 March 2016 (photo by Kevin Wilford)
It’s a good thing this owl was rescued. He’s not injured but he is emaciated. Did he have parents in Schenley Park?
Based on his age — two months older than our local owlets — I had a theory that he hatched in the South, perhaps the Carolinas, and was brought to Pittsburgh by someone who dumped him at the secluded end of the playground when he got too big.
But my theory was wrong! After publishing this blog I learned that a Public Works employee saw a great horned owl this morning at 6:45am near the Anderson Bridge.
In any case, while this owl fattens up he will have a good foster mom at ARL. Martha the great horned owl will teach him everything he needs to know.
(photos by John English, Dana Nesiti, Cathy Bubash and Kevin Wilford)
Event: This Sunday, April 3, 4:00-6:00pm, you can meet owls from the ARL Wildlife Center at their fundraiser at the Galleria of Mount Lebanon. Click here to register.
p.s. Ravens are rare in the City of Pittsburgh but I saw a pair poke at the Homestead Grays Bridge nest on February 18. They were agitated. Now I know why. The owl was probably in the nest and just beginning incubation. Ravens hate great horned owls.
Second egg hatches at Hays bald eagle nest, 22 March 2016, 9:40pm
Peregrine news has been so intense lately that I missed telling you about Pittsburgh’s first eaglet of 2016 … and now there are two nestlings at the Hays bald eagle nest.
Here’s a roundup of Hays nest news from first hatch on Monday to last night’s second hatch. There’s one egg still in the nest.
1. First egg hatched on Monday March 21 at 12:37 am (just after midnight). See video below
Louie explores the nest area on 10 March 2016 while Dori perches above (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at the Gulf Tower)
Raptor nesting season is already upon us. Bald eagles have eggs. Peregrine falcons will lay them soon. Here are some opportunities to watch their nests from the comfort of your home.
Gulf Tower, Downtown Pittsburgh: Dori and Louie, shown above, are spending time at the Gulf Tower this spring after nesting at non-camera sites for a few years. Will they nest at Gulf this year? The real litmus test will be when Dori lays eggs, mid-March to early April. (*)
Times Square Building, Rochester New York: The female at Rochester’s Times Square has a Pittsburgh connection. Beauty was born at the Cathedral of Learning in 2007. She’s Dorothy and Erie’s daughter.
Wilmington, Delaware: Red Girl at Wilmington is one of the first peregrines to lay eggs in the Mid-Atlantic. She already has four, laid March 5 through 10.
Pittsburgh’s Hays and Harmar bald eagles: Two nests on one convenient web page at eagles.aswp.org. The Hays female laid her eggs on February 13, 16 and 20 so her first hatch will be (approx) March 19. Harmar’s first egg was March 9 so watch for hatching on (approx) April 13.
Decorah, Iowa: Decorah is one of the longest running eagles cams in the U.S.
Check the Eagleholic Eagle Cam list for a list of webcams complete with egg dates. Pittsburgh’s two nests are listed as “Pittsburgh Hays” and “Harmar”.
This list is just a sampling. If you have a favorite nestcam post it in Comments below.
(*) Keep in mind that the cameras show only a small piece of these birds’ lives. You must visit their territories and observe them in person to see what’s really going on. Case in point: Click here for two comments (read the question and answer) about yesterday’s lack of activity at the Gulf Tower.
