11 January 2025

Yesterday the Univ of Pittsburgh, the National Aviary, and I prepared for the upcoming peregrine nesting season by cleaning the nestbox and falconcams.

After examining the indoor side of the camera equipment Bob Mulvihill of the National Aviary and Gracie Jane Gollinger from Pitt IT braved 10°F weather on the ledge. Camera cleaning went well despite the cold weather and there was nothing to clean at the nestbox. However …

When Bob stepped out on the landing that leads to the cameras, we were amazed that the area at his feet was strewn with partially eaten prey. I kept a list. Some were hard to identify.

• Rock Pigeon (Feral) 1
• Yellow-billed Cuckoo 3 or 4
• Black-billed Cuckoo 1
• Pileated Woodpecker 1
• Northern Flicker 1 (yellow feathers)
• European Starling 1
• Wood Thrush 2 or 3

Up to 5 cuckoos! The landing was clean when the chicks were banded on 21 May 2024 so the cache was left since then.

The most interesting find was the skull of a pileated woodpecker. I assumed that peregrines would never capture a bird with such a dangerous beak but I was wrong.

Why so many prey items at this spot? Perhaps it was a favorite dining area where the adults dropped off food for last year’s youngsters.

Why so many cuckoos? The Pitt peregrines have always had a fondness for cuckoos, probably because their flight is floppy which makes them easy to catch. My only regret is that the peregrines caught so many cuckoos and wood thrushes.

Here’s the crew after our successful visit.

We’re ready for Peregrine Season!

27 October 2024

This week the New York Times described A Feathered Murder Mystery at 10,000 Feet which I cannot resist retelling because peregrines are involved. My story will be in photos none of which are from the real episode. See actual photos and the full story at the link above.

In early 2023 scientists from the University of Amsterdam attached satellite trackers to eight black-bellied plovers that were wintering in the Netherlands (a.k.a. grey plovers, Pluvialis squatarola). The goal was to find out where they breed in the Arctic. Here’s what one looks like in spring.

In late May 2023 the birds were migrating northwest over Sweden at almost 10,000 feet when one of them abruptly changed direction 180 degrees, descended to near sea level and completely stopped moving. When a tracking device sends that kind of news, the bird is dead.

The scientists, led by Dr. M.P. (Chiel) Boom, went to Sweden to retrieve the tracker and found it on a ledge in an old quarry.

650 feet away from the abandoned tracker was a peregrine nest. (Chances are very good that the scientists did NOT visit during nesting season but the whitewash left on a cliff is a clear indication of who was there in late May.)

The plover died during peregrine breeding season when there were probably young peregrines in the nest so the father bird went hunting high above where the food was flying.

It’s not a surprise that plovers fly so high — some species fly even higher on migration — but it is a surprise that peregrines hunt at 10,000 feet. The plover’s tracker provided the first documented evidence.

Just when we think we know everything about peregrines, they surprise us again.

p.s. Please keep in mind that none of these photos are from the actual event!