Dori and Louie’s peregrine family in Downtown Pittsburgh will be split up and their four chicks — less than two weeks old — will be permanently taken away from them if the development at Keystone Flats acts on the “taking” permit they have received from U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

In early March Dori laid eggs at her 3rd Avenue nest instead of the Gulf Tower(*).  Meanwhile the building below the nest is being renovated by BET Investments.  When completed, 319 Third Avenue will become luxury student apartments called Keystone Flats.

Peregrines defend their eggs and chicks from human intruders by buzzing people who come too close.  Dori and Louie buzz the workmen on the Keystone roof.  The developer wants the peregrines and their nest to go away so they applied to the Federal government and were granted a permit to remove the chicks.  I have learned from the PA Game Commission that the chicks would be raised by a rehabber.  (UPDATE on May 2: New information in John Hayes’ article in the Post-Gazette.)

If the developer is willing to wait 30-35 days(**) the nest and the peregrines will go away on their own.  By that time the chicks will learn to fly and will leave Third Avenue.  Their parents will follow them. Problem solved.

Taking the chicks won’t make the peregrines stop buzzing the site.  Peregrines do not “shut off” when their chicks are gone but instead remain where the chicks used to be and continue to attack until their anger and hormones quiet down.  This may take weeks or months, depending on the individual birds.

The decision to remove Dori and Louie’s chicks rests on the shoulders of BET Investments.   Their project has a permit but they don’t have to act on it. This is their first development in the city of Pittsburgh.  They probably don’t realize how much we love our peregrines.

If you want the chicks to remain with their parents, please voice your concerns to the contacts below. Be polite and courteous.

BET Investments
200 Dryden Road, Suite 2000
Dresher, PA 19025

Phone:215-938-7300
Fax:215-938-8651
email: info@betinvestments.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/betinvestments/  (update on 4/30/2018: this link might not work)
Twitter: twitter.com/betinvestments1

(photo credits:  The photo of Dori, Louie and 4 chicks is a stand-in from 2014 when their chicks were the same age as this year’s are now. We don’t have photos of the family this year.
Building photo by Lori Maggio in 2013)

(*) The Third Avenue nest is at the base of an air shaft.  To avoid this problem next year, I suggest that in July or August the developer permanently blocks bird access to the air shaft. The peregrines will then nest at the Gulf Tower — or they will choose yet another building.

(**) The chicks will begin leaving around May 29. It will take a few days for all of them to complete the process, as is normal.

When a raptor nest doesn’t have a camera, the only way to tell if the eggs have hatched is to watch near the nest for the first food delivery.

Last week Lori Maggio stopped by the Downtown peregrines’ nest every day to see if Louie was bringing in food.  On Thursday, April 19, she was lucky to be there when he made his first delivery to Dori and the chick(s) — but it took five attempts before he was allowed to drop it off.

That’s because the mother peregrine is always in charge at the nest. She’s present when the eggs are hatching, she calls the shots on the timing of feedings, and she’s the one who feeds the chicks until they are older.

This slideshow of Lori Maggio’s photos shows how completely Dori is in charge at the Downtown nest … and proves that the eggs hatched on April 19, 2018.

In his first four tries, Louie brings prey to the nest opening but Dori says “Not yet; go away” She probably tells him with just a look.  On the fifth attempt she says OK, Louie makes his delivery, and flies away with empty talons.

Even if we had a webcam at the Downtown nest we would never have seen this activity.  The same is true at the Pitt peregrine nest.

The Cathedral of Learning falconcam has such a narrow view that we can’t see when Terzo arrives with a food delivery and we can’t see how many times he’s brought food and been rebuffed.  Here’s what we do know:

• Somewhere off camera Terzo signals that he’s brought food.
• When Hope signals OK, Terzo comes into the nest to shelter the chicks while Hope leaves to get the food.
• Hope is gone for a few minutes.
• She returns, bringing the food into camera view.
• Terzo leaves and Hope feeds the chicks.

Peregrine mothers rule the nest.

(photos by Lori Maggio)

In case you missed it, here’s what’s been happening at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest.

This Day in a Minute video from 22 April 2018 shows 12 hours of their activities in 60 seconds. Things are looking good.

Yesterday Hope and Terzo’s two chicks were three and four days old.  The chicks still need to be brooded but the weather was sunny and warm so their parents didn’t have to cover them completely.

You’ll see the chicks receive a very long feeding at 9:30a, then Terzo took over the morning shift. At noon he and the chicks shuffled to the front of the nest box. Then Hope came in and shuffled the chicks back in place.  Sleep and eat, that’s what they do.

Watch them on the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh.

(video made of snapshots from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh)

Thursday April 19, 2018 at 7:30am.

Yes, there’s an exclamation point in the title!  The suspense is over.  Out of four hatched eggs, Hope killed two chicks and spared two.  (Click here for Hope’s history of killing her young.)

The 4th egg:

Last night at 11:15pm Hope pulled an eggshell from the nest beneath her.  We knew the 4th egg had hatched but no one could see if the chick was OK.  Hope gave us a hint last night when she stepped aside at 3am and revealed two chicks (below).

We saw them clearly when Terzo brought food at dawn. At top, Hope leaves to get the food. And here Terzo arrives to brood them while she’s gone. (Typically the mother peregrine eats a little, then brings the rest back to feed the babies.)

Every year after hatching is over, Hope becomes a good mother.  She fledged 1 youngster in 2016 and 3 in 2017.

So the coast is clear. Whew!

A word about naming the chicks:

At Pittsburgh’s on-camera sites we use a naming scheme similar to that used at bald eagle nests: a letter for the location plus the hatch number.  The Cathedral of Learning is “C” and last year’s chicks were C6 to C8 so this year’s chicks are C9 and C10.

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh)

Wednesday April 18, 2018, 7:40am:

Yesterday was hatch day at the Cathedral of Learning nest but it was not a happy day.  As the female peregrine Hope has done in the past, she killed and ate some of her young as they hatched.  The status right now is:

• April 17, 8:10am: As the first egg began to hatch, Hope picked up the chick, killed and ate it. Her back was to the camera.
• April 17, 9:07am: As the second egg began to hatch, Hope opened the egg, killed and ate the chick in full camera view.
• April 17, 1:35pm: Terzo was on the eggs. Hope arrived and chirped for him to leave.  She opened the 3rd egg, picked up the chick and carried it, but did not kill it.  Hope eventually brooded the chick and the remaining egg.
• April 17, 4:55pm:  Early evening: Terzo brought food. Hope fed the chick.
• April 18, 6:20am:  Nest exchange at dawn. Terzo arrives with food. Hope feeds the chick. Then Terzo broods. 1 egg remains.

Why does Hope kill and eat her young?

We don’t know.  This is such a rare occurrence that there’s no guidance from similar peregrine nests — they just don’t do this.  Meanwhile every idea we come up with is a guess.  I prefer not to wade into the guessing.

Unusual behaviors:

Yes, Hope kills and eats her chicks but there are two unusual habits that accompany it:

• Hope opens the egg.  The hatching rule for all birds is this: Chicks must open the eggs themselves. At other peregrine falconcams notice that the mother watches but does not touch the shell until the chick has forced open the two halves.  Later the mother eats the shell (which is normal). Raptors beaks are sharp and could damage the chick. Normal mother raptors do not use their beaks on the eggs.
• Hope picks up and carries the chick.  Normal peregrines don’t pick up their hatchlings. When a chick is outside the scrape (nest bowl) the mother uses the underside of her closed beak to pull the chick back to her.  Hope uses her closed beak to arrange the eggs but she breaks that rule when they hatch.

Why doesn’t Terzo stay at the nest and prevent this from happening?

The rule at peregrine nests is that the mother bird is totally in charge.  The father bird defers to her.

A corollary is that the mother bird is always present and in charge at hatching time.  She calls all the shots, including timing of the first feeding.

The father bird may communicate that he wants something to be different but it’s her decision.  When Hope tells Terzo, “It’s my turn to be on the nest!” he has to leave.  When he tells her “An egg is hatching” she takes over.  This is the way of the peregrine.

What next?

We don’t know what Hope will do with the last egg so these warnings still apply.

A Caution to Viewers:

Don’t watch the eggs hatch at the Cathedral of Learning if it upsets you to see a mother kill her young.

A Caution to Commenters:

If commenters become worked up and demand/request action in emails or phone calls to “those in charge” it will end the show.  Literally.  It will shut down the camera.  That’s what happened when commenters went over the top at the Woods Hole Osprey-cam.  So… If you post a comment that could inflame others, I will edit it or delete it.

I’ll let you know when the coast is clear.

Bad news.

This morning the eggs began to hatch at the Cathedral of Learning but as the first one opened its egg the mother peregrine, Hope, killed and ate the chick.  Fortunately she had her back turned while she ate.

There were four eggs when the day began. It remains to be seen how many will survive.

Hope does this every year so I here’s my recommendation:

A Caution to Viewers:

Don’t watch the eggs hatch at the Cathedral of Learning if it upsets you to see a mother kill her young.

I’ll let you know when the coast is clear.

Update: At approximately 9:00am Hope killed and ate chick#2.
Update: At 1:35pm Hope manipulated 3rd egg. Chick #3 hatched. She is brooding it with 4th egg.  (This report is 3rd hand; I was not watching.)

A Caution to Commenters:

Though this situation resembles reality TV in which viewers can vote someone on or off the island, it is not a “voting” situation.  If commenters become worked up and demand/request action in emails or phone calls to “those in charge” it will end the show.  Literally.  It will shut down the camera.  That’s what happened when commenters went over the top at the Woods Hole Osprey-cam.

Normally I do not edit readers’ comments but this situation is not normal.  If you post a comment that could inflame others, I will edit it or delete it.

Though I am not watching Hope closely (I don’t want see her kill her young), I do want the camera to stay up.

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Update on Sunday April 15, before dawn:

Well, my calculations for hatch date were wrong.  The peregrine eggs at the Cathedral of Learning didn’t hatch on April 13 or 14.

They didn’t even pip.

By the end of the day yesterday (April 14) no one could confirm the pip reported on the 13th.

I guess it was a false alarm. However, the eggs will hatch soon.

More news later.

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh)

Note the “Caution” at the end of this article.

Yesterday, 13 April 2018, sharp observers saw the first pip in an egg at the Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest.  I still haven’t seen it, but I’m told it’s in this picture.

This day-in-a-minute video (12 hours in 1 minute) shows that Hope and Terzo were especially active yesterday, partly due to the unusually hot weather.  It was 80 degrees in the shade and hotter at the nest so it was safe to leave the eggs for a bit.

I don’t recommend watching these eggs hatch on camera.  In past years Hope has killed and eaten one or more chicks as they hatch (read more here), so …

Caution! Don’t watch the eggs hatch at the Cathedral of Learning if it upsets you to see a mother kill her young.

It will be safe to watch after hatching is done. Meanwhile, I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE on SATURDAY APRIL 15, 4:00pm:  I still can’t see a pip — and neither does Pitt Peregrines on Facebook.  As of this writing there is still no hatching.  We’ll just have to wait…

(photos and video from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

The peregrine eggs at the Cathedral of Learning nest are due to hatch at the end of this week, but here’s a word of caution:  You might not want to watch.

My calculation says that hatch day for Hope and Terzo’s eggs will be this Friday April 13 or Saturday April 14.

However, it probably won’t be a happy event.  Hope has a habit of killing and eating some of her chicks just after they pip.  Her behavior is very rare and upsets nearly everyone who sees it.

In 2016 Hope killed and ate two chicks before they could emerge from their eggs.  Last year she killed one. (Click on the links to find out more.)

We don’t know why she does this and we don’t know if she’ll repeat it this year but my word to the wise is this:

Caution! Don’t watch the eggs hatch at the Cathedral of Learning if it upsets you to see a mother kill her young.

Hope has a history.  We hope she won’t repeat it this year.

p.s. After hatching is over, Hope becomes a good mother. She fledged 1 youngster in 2016 and 3 in 2017.

(snapshot from 24 April 2017 from the National Aviary falconcam at University of Pittsburgh)

Terzo has certainly grown into his role as “father peregrine” since he first arrived at the Cathedral of Learning during 2016’s tumultuous nesting season.

He often spends more than half the day incubating while his mate Hope takes a break.  (She incubates all night.)  He has also learned a thing or two about dealing with her.

Hope is a very loud bird, so loud that her shouting can be heard inside the Cathedral of Learning and blocks away from the building.  I don’t know why she shouts but I found out last year that when she shouts she’s looking at Terzo.

This year Terzo is shouting back!

At the beginning of this April 4th video clip, Hope shouts from the nest.  Then you hear another peregrine shout back. It’s Terzo, off camera.  At the end of the clip Hope falls asleep and Terzo shouts at her and wakes her up.  Hah!

This went on for a while.  I could have shown you 6 minutes of shouting but decided to spare you.

See and hear them on the National Aviary falconcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh.  Be ready to use the mute button.   😉

(video from the National Aviary falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

p.s. Having trouble watching the falconcam?  Here are tips for viewing.