On Sunday afternoon five of us scoured Downtown Pittsburgh looking for the peregrine falcon pair who haven’t used the Gulf Tower nest since March 10.  They’ve got to be nesting somewhere by now, but where?  Our Peregrine Quest came up with mixed results.

Doug walked Gateway Center/Market Square.  Denise and her husband checked midtown including the 2012-2013 nesting zone. I checked Penn/Liberty and went to the North Shore for a wider view and John English went to Flag Plaza.  Only John saw peregrines and he saw them almost immediately.  (UPDATE: See Doug’s comment below.)

After John texted me with two peregrine sightings back-to-back — one flew past BNY Mellon down the Forbes-Fifth canyon and one perched on UPMC (U.S. Steel Building) —  I raced over to Flag Plaza to see them, too.  I hadn’t been there long before we saw an exciting but silent interaction.

A female peregrine was flying around UPMC and approaching the building again from the left when a male peregrine popped out from behind the building (using it as a blind) and attacked her from above!  She evaded his dive-bombing and sailed around UPMC one more time, then circled up and sailed off toward Oakland.

Here’s a map of the buildings (red pins), the peregrine perch (green pin), our vantage point (brown pin), and the peregrine flight paths during our half hour of watching.   After the attack the male perched on UPMC for a while but we missed seeing him leave.

View Downtown Pittsburgh, Peregrine Tussle, 3/22/15, 2pm in a larger map

Why would a male peregrine attack a female during nesting season?  The only time I’ve seen this happen is when the pair has eggs in the nest, the female is busy at the nest, and a new female shows up.  The male then defends his territory, nest, and mate from an intruding female.  So my guess is that the Downtown peregrines already have a nest.

We learned that they’re spending time at this end of town, but we still don’t know where they’re nesting.

(view from Flag Plaza, photo by Kate St. John with lousy late afternoon light)

Yesterday I fretted that Dori and Louie might not nest at the Gulf Tower because they hadn’t been seen there since February 20. I was so concerned that they might be using their old nest site on Third Avenue that I went over there at 5:00pm to find them. But no peregrines.

This morning I pulled two motion detection images from the Gulfcam and found out why they weren’t at Third Avenue.

Here they are after everyone left for the weekend!

Just after 5:50 pm Friday, Louie was moving so fast he was a blur.  🙂

Woo hoo!

(photos from the National Aviary falconcam at the Gulf Tower, Pittsburgh)

February and March are great times to watch peregrine courtship in Pittsburgh.  Unfortunately our two sites with webcams — Pitt and the Gulf Tower — have little or no courtship activity.  What’s up with these peregrines?

Nearly every day I visit the University of Pittsburgh to check on Dorothy and E2.  They’re usually perched on the Cathedral of Learning but they don’t make courtship flights like they did in the old days.  This is probably because, at age 16, Dorothy isn’t interested anymore.  She seems to be in “hen-o-pause” since her egg bound episode last spring.

Sadly this means the pair is rarely on the webcam.  Twice last week E2 tried to lure Dorothy to the nest but she visited only once.  This is in stark contrast to her prior habit of sitting at the nest for hours and courting several times a day, even in February snow.  I don’t expect any peregrine chicks while Dorothy is in charge.

At Gulf there’s a beautiful new HD webcam — and no peregrines!  They visited the nest on February 7 and 20 but Ann Hohn at Make-A-Wish confirms what the camera says:  No peregrines have been there for two weeks.  This is highly unusual if they intend to nest at Gulf.  I wondered if they’d gone back to their old 2012-2013 nest site near Point Park University so I checked it last Saturday.  No peregrines there.  No peregrines anywhere Downtown.  What’s up?  I don’t know.

The bright spots have been the bridges.

I’ve only been to the Westinghouse Bridge once this year, but I saw a peregrine perched on it when I drove by on February 22.  At Tarentum I saw both peregrines in courtship flight on nestbox-installation day.  And at the Neville Island I-79 Bridge, Anne Marie Bosnyak saw the peregrines court and mate last Saturday.  They even stayed long enough for Anne Marie to go home for her camera and take these beautiful photos of Magnum and her mate.  Love is in the air at Neville.

So far there are no sightings at the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge, the McKees Rocks Bridge, and the Greentree water tower — though that doesn’t mean there aren’t peregrines.

If you have any news, post a comment to let us know … What’s up with these peregrines?

(photos of Magnum and her mate by Anne Marie Bosnyak)

p.s. Folks in Johnstown are hoping their lone male peregrine on the First National Bank Building attracts a mate soon.

If you saw the peregrine banding at the Tarentum Bridge last May, you’ll remember the nest was in a dangerous place.  The entrance hole pointed down over open water and there were no perches nearby.  After banding the chicks the PA Game Commission placed them on the mid-river pier where they learned to fly in safety.  (Click here to see last year’s site.)

Thinking ahead to this year, it’s no wonder the Game Commission decided to place a nestbox on the bridge. Rob Protz, Marge Van Tassel and I braved 9^oF to watch the installation yesterday morning.

Brrr!   Marge took our picture with one of the PennDOT crew.

Before the installation began we saw two peregrines!

Around 9:00am the female 69/Z, nicknamed Hope, flew from the bridge.  Rob Protz saw her land in a tree so we went over and Marge took her picture.  (This was one of the few times I’ve ever seen a peregrine perched in a tree.)  Within a half hour, Hope’s mate came by for a courtship flight and the pair disappeared upriver.

Meanwhile PennDOT District 11 blocked a lane of traffic on the bridge, set up the Bucket Truck, and delivered PA Game Commission biologist Tom Keller to the catwalk.  While he climbed down the ladder to the mid-river pier, Hope returned and noticed something was up. She watched the project from the upriver navigation light.

The Bucket delivered tools, gravel and the new nestbox to Tom.

While he cleared ice from the pier he was joined by another member of the PennDOT crew.

They positioned the box with its back to the prevailing wind, drilled holes to anchor it, added a perch pole, and filled it with gravel.

Ta dah!

Now we wait and see, and hope that “Hope” will use it this year.

(photos by Marge Van Tassel, Kate St. John and Tom Keller.  See captions for photo credits)

p.s. Steve, picture above on the bridge with Tom, is the one who built the box of cedar to PGC’s specification.

Though the Hays bald eagles are incubating eggs in their icy nest, Pittsburgh’s peregrines are hanging back — but that’s about to change.

Peregrines in western Pennsylvania lay eggs from mid-March to early April.  In late February they make courtship flights together when the weather is good (when has it been good?!).  Then in early March they bow at the nest.

You can watch this up close on the National Aviary falconcams:

• At the Gulf Tower in downtown Pittsburgh, Dori usually lays her first egg between March 10 and 17.  (Notice the new HD camera installed this winter!)

• At the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, Dorothy used to lay between March 13 and 20 but she is 16 years old this spring (that’s old for a peregrine).  Last year she became egg bound.  Will she be able to lay this year?

Drama is possible at any site in March. Younger peregrines arrive to challenge the older ones.  (Not only is Dorothy 16, but Louie at the Gulf Tower is 13 this year.)  Nevertheless by mid-May there will be bright-eyed nestlings on camera.

To get you in the mood for nesting season, click here or on the photo above for nesting highlights from last spring at the Gulf Tower.

Peregrine nesting season is almost here!

p.s.  Pittsburgh’s six other peregrine sites can be monitored from the ground:

• Tarentum Bridge: PGC and PennDOT will install a nest box this Friday 2/27 at 9:00am.  Come watch from the boat ramp under the bridge.  There were 2 chicks here last year.
• Monaca-East Rochester Bridge: 4 chicks in 2014
• Westinghouse Bridge: 2 chicks in 2014
• Neville Island I-79 Bridge: 1 chick in 2014
• McKees Rocks Bridge: Nest could not be found
• Green Tree water tower:  No nest in 2014

(photo from the National Aviary falconcam at the Gulf Tower)

p.p.s.  Right on schedule, guess who came to visit at the Cathedral of Learning nest this afternoon … E2 calls, “Hey, Dorothy!”