Unusual clouds at sunrise, 30 December 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
2 January 2021
Since last Sunday Pittsburgh has been warm, wet and overcast except for a single sunny day, 29 December, which I largely spent indoors (foolish me!). I don’t have much to show for a gray week.
The next morning, 30 December, dawned with thin ragged clouds, a tantalizing end to sunshine.
On New Year’s Eve I took a three hour walk in Schenley Park and stopped to look for the Pitt peregrines. There’s a peregrine perched on this building. Can you see it?
There’s a peregrine on this building. Can you see it? Pittsburgh, 31 Dec 2020, 11:43am (photo by Kate St. John)
Zoomed in, the peregrine is on the right hand leaf-stem. Morela matches the building.
Peregrine falcon on the leaf-stem, 31 Dec 2020 (photo by Kate St. John)
Later she spent an hour at the nestbox.
Morela at the nestbox, 31 Dec 2020, 2:20pm (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)Morela preening at the nestbox, 31 Dec 2020, 2:34pm (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
New Year’s Day 2021 was a washout. No photos. No peregrines. (I tried to find them. no luck) It rained most of the day.
Merlin at Homewood Cemetery, 26 Dec 2020 (photo by Michelle Kienholz)
28 December 2020
Pittsburgh’s Christmas Bird Count dawned bitter cold (13o F) and overcast on Saturday 26 December 2020. The weather was daunting, city roads were snow-covered, and birds were very hard to find. Though the official count isn’t in yet, there were notable exceptions less than three miles from my home — merlins, peregrines, 20K+ crows and a Baltimore oriole.
Morela, 12/26/2020, 7:33a (photo from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Ecco arrives on the front perch
Morela and Ecco
Ecco calls as Morela leaves
Ecco alone
Ecco leaves
empty nest
CROWS: Counting crows is always a challenge despite our best laid plans. At dusk at the Allequippa Street Parking Garage, Claire Staples and Joe Fedor counted crows arriving from the north, west, and Allegheny Valley. At Schenley Park golf course I counted them flying in from the east. (The eastern group can’t been seen from Allequippa Street.)
It was so cold! The crows felt it too and used different flight paths than the day before. Erf! Even so, the three of us counted 20,000 to 24,000 crows.
Here’s what they looked like at Allequippa Street on 18 Dec 2020, photos by Mary Brush.
Crows near the Petersen Center, 18 Dec 2020 (photo by Mary Brush)Crows near the Petersen Center, 18 Dec 2020 (photo by Mary Brush)
BALTIMORE ORIOLE (Icterus galbula): Most likely the rarest bird of the count was the Baltimore oriole at Izaguirre’s feeder in Oakland. Frank and Adrienne have been keeping him happy since he showed up on 20 December. In Frank’s photo below he’s slurping jam from the top of the suet cake. Yay!
Baltimore oriole at Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count, 26 Dec 2020 (photo by Frank Izaguirre)
In the typical absurdity of 2020, the weather on the day after the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count was partly sunny and 47oF.
Dorothy bathing at Duck Hollow during the 2013 Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count (photo by Michelle Kienholz, 28 Dec 2013)
26 December 2020
The success of a Christmas Bird Count really depends on the weather. If the weather is good the birds are active and easy to find. In bad weather — heavy rain, snow, fog, high winds — birds are scarce.
Today is the Pittsburgh Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in the circle shown below. At 8am it’s 14 degrees F with gusty winds, overcast skies and light snow showers. It feels like 2 degrees F. What birds will I find in my city neighborhood under these conditions? Not many I fear.
Seven years ago the 2013 Pittsburgh CBC had a Falcon Sweep at a single location. In one half hour there was a peregrine falcon (Dorothy), a merlin, and an American kestrel at Duck Hollow — all the possible Falco species — described in this 2013 article: Take Me To The River.
Merlin bathing in the Mon River, 28 Dec 2013 (photo by Michelle Kienholz)
Today if I’m lucky in bad weather I’ll see a peregrine at the Cathedral of Learning and a merlin at dusk in Schenley Park. It would be a miracle if I saw a kestrel.
For old times sake, here’s a kestrel in June 2016 at an unusual city location.
American kestrel at the Gulf Tower peregrine nest on 9 June 2016 (photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Gulf Tower)
More news later. Brrrr!
(photos by Michelle Kienholz and the National Aviary falconcam that used to be at Gulf Tower)
The COVID-19 pandemic has ranged from difficult to devastating for every public venue in the U.S. including the National Aviary. The Aviary relies on visitors for much of its income but visitors are few and far between during the pandemic and sometimes — as is happening now until January 4 — the Aviary must close because of COVID-19 restrictions. They care for their birds even while money is tight. The streaming falconcam feels like a luxury.
Now is the perfect time to make your gift because an anonymous donor is matching every dollar donated through January 2021, up to $100,000! Your donation will be doubled!
Put a smile on Morela’s face.
Support the National Aviary and the peregrine falconcam. Click here to donate.
p.s. To specifically mention the falconcam in your donation you can check mark “Give in Honor of…” on the donation screen and write in the Pitt peregrine falconcam.
Bob Mulvihill arrives at the nestbox, 7 Dec 2020, 8:56am
Reaching for the first egg
Putting it in the carton
Reaching for the second egg
safely in the carton
Cleaning up the roof bits that have fallen on the nest
pulling away the drooping pieces of roof
getting ready to wipe the camera cover
dampening the cloth
Mask on -- even outdoors!
Leaving at 09:05
8 December 2020
Perhaps you have noticed that the Cathedral of Learning nestbox is clean and the old eggs are gone. As predicted, we performed annual maintenance on the Pitt peregrine nestbox and falconcam yesterday morning.
Due to the COVID surge in Allegheny County, four of us briefly met in the Cathedral of Learning lobby then only two, Bob Mulvihill and Dan Hosier from the National Aviary, went upstairs with the security guard to access the ledge. Joseph Pastorik and I watched outdoors at Schenley Plaza to see if the peregrines would show up. They did not.
As you can see from the snapshot camera, Bob collected the old eggs, cleared the nest surface, and cleaned the cameras. The nestbox roof has fallen apart so Bob pulled away the hanging bits. Meanwhile Dan measured the roof so he can construct a replacement. Bob and Dan will return in a week or three to install the new roof.
Are the peregrines still around? You bet. Morela (female), Terzo and Ecco (two males) have all shown up in the last five days. Check out these comparison snapshots.
Ecco and Morela, 3 Dec 2020, 14:16 Morela, 3 Dec 2020, 14:15 (large, peachy, no bands)Ecco, 3 Dec 2020, 14:16 (smaller, dark with white chest, no bands)Terzo, 5 Dec 2020, 14:00 (pale back and head, dark wingtips and tail tip, banded)
Terzo, 20 Oct 2020 (snapshot from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Terzo before dawn. Ecco appears later. 22 Oct 2020
Morela and *Ecco*, 22 Oct 2020, Same day as Terzo.
Morela bows to Terzo, 24 Oct 2020
Morela and Terzo, 27 Oct 2020
Terzo and Morela, 28 Oct 2020
Terzo, 30 Oct 2020
Terzo looks through the hole in the roof, 6 Nov 2020
Morela bows to Terzo, 7 Nov 2020
*Ecco* and Morela, 9 Nov 2020
Morela and Terzo, 16 Nov 2020
Morela and Terzo, 17 Nov 2020
Morela and Terzo, 18 Nov 2020
Morela and Terzo, 19 Nov 2020
21 November 2020
Now that I live in Oakland I see the Pitt peregrines when I walk around the neighborhood. Morela is a regular, of course. Last week Terzo appeared almost every evening at 4:30pm, circling the Cathedral of Learning and zooming up to a high perch. It’s a joy to see him.
I began to wonder if he was the only male peregrine at Pitt but a look at five weeks of snapshots indicates Ecco has been present, too. I’ve put their appearances in the slideshow above.
The calendar shows that Terzo is more frequent: Terzo = blue, Ecco = green. Amazingly, both of them were present on 22 October 2020.
It didn’t rain much last July but when it did I noticed something puzzling on the Pitt peregrine falconcam(*). The nest was getting wet where it ought to be dry. Was the roof leaking?
A week ago the problem became acute when it rained hard all day on 11 November. By the end of the day pieces of brown debris were on the nest surface, probably from the roof. Now the rain really gets in!
If you look closely at falconcam still photos you can see papery pieces of roof hanging from above, erosion in the right corner where the rain drips, and debris from the roof on the nest surface.
Though we can’t see the roof from either camera, a snapshot of the awning gives us a hint of the roof’s condition. The red circle shows a place that lost its waterproof coating, exposing the under layer. The awning is deteriorating too, though more slowly.
The nestbox was built and installed in late 2007 (or early January 2008) after the Cathedral of Learning was spray-washed. I believe the box and walls are made of solid plastic but the roof and awning appear to be a composite material that has been weathering for 13 years.
This fall we’ll arrange for repairs so the nestbox is in good condition for the 2021 nesting season. Like maintaining a very small home, repairs are inevitable.
(*) Streaming of the Pitt peregrine falconcam is seasonal. It ended for the year on 31 July 2020.
Morela at the Pitt peregrine nest, 17 Oct 2020 (snapshot from the National Aviary falconcam)
18 October 2020
In a normal year there would have been a successful peregrine nest at the Cathedral of Learning from February to June and practically no activity on the nestcam from July to January. It’s usually safe for me to ignore nestcam snapshots while the streaming falconcam is off in the non-breeding season. But not this year.
Eleven days later, 16 and 17 October, Terzo made several appearances with Morela and Ecco showed up alone.
Friday 16 October: Morela and Terzo bowed in the morning and evening. At midday Ecco showed up alone and shouted for Morela to come to him. She never did.
Terzo and Morela at Pitt peregrine nest, 16 Oct 2020, 10:26amEcco shouts for Morela to join him. She didn’t, 16 Oct 2020, 11:53amTerzo and Morela at Pitt peregrine nest, 16 Oct 2020, 4:23pm
Saturday 17 October: Morela hung out at the nest (top photo) and Terzo showed up alone. No sign of Ecco.
Terzo at Pitt peregrine nest, 17 Oct 2020, 6:05pm
If this was a normal year I’d expect the two males to settle the question soon, leaving just one of them to rule the Cathedral of Learning.
This is not a normal year in more ways than one.
(photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Since last week’s two installments in the Pitt peregrine soap opera, Morela’s suitors continue to visit the nest. Ecco is present more often than Terzo and bows intensively with Morela for long periods of time. Terzo visits alone. This activity is unusual for October. Something is going on.
Above and below, during their first visit on Monday 5 October at 4:53pm, Ecco scanned the sky to make sure Terzo wasn’t nearby. Then he and Morela locked gazes and nearly touched beaks. I can’t help but think Morela’s pair bond is stronger with Ecco.
Ecco scans the sky while Morela bows, 5 Oct 2020, 16:53Ecco and Morela about to touch beaks, 5 Oct 2020, 16:56
On the second visit at 6:56pm Morela left before Ecco. He paused at the nest for a while.
Ecco pauses at the nest after Morela left, 5 Oct 2020 18:57
Yesterday (Tuesday 6 October) Terzo visited for 6 minutes. He called to Morela but she did not appear on camera.
Ecco, Ecco, Terzo. I wonder when — or if — they’ll sort out which male owns the nest.
(snapshots from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)
Zoetic with prey, Lake Erie shore, January 2020 (photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)
During their first year of life young peregrines wander, looking for places where prey is abundant. A full grown peregrine needs to catch just one good-sized bird or a couple of small ones (blackbird size) each day to satisfy its hunger. Locations where thousands of birds gather on migration is prime hunting ground. That’s why young peregrines gravitate to the shore.
Shorebirds gather in the thousands at the water’s edge on migration. To protect themselves against peregrines they fly up in a very tight ball so the peregrine can’t pick out a single bird. If any shorebird breaks out of the ball the peregrine will catch it.
Watch the dramatic action of a lone peregrine hunting among thousands of shorebirds in videos below by Mark Wyna and Rob Palmer.
With thousands of potential prey items, the peregrine needs to catch just one.
p.s. If you think the shorebirds’ evasive flight uses up a lot of energy you’d be right. Peregrine pressure on shorebirds keeps them fit. Read more in this vintage blog: Peregrines as a Fitness Program.
(photo of Zoetic with prey by Chad+Chris Saladin. Zoetic is the first female fledgling from the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo site)
