21 March 2025

UPDATE: I WAS WRONG! Carla laid her 3rd egg much earlier than I originally thought. It was before 2:07am on 21 March 2025.

I had expected Carla to lay her third egg last evening but it took a longer than expected. As early as 8pm she looked like she was ready to lay it (below), but it did not happen until this morning at 2:07 am (above).

At 5:40am I saw Carla corral the clutch, bob her body to expose her brood patch, and lay down with her back feathers standing up a bit, as shown in the video below. It looks to me like she’s begun incubation. (You can hear Ecco whining in the background.)

Hatch Day should be 33-35 days from now –> 23 to 25 April. In the meantime we’ll be watching The Big Sit on the falconcam for more than a month.

As I said earlier, there’s always a possibility that I’ve missed something and miscalculated the dates … and sure enough I’ve already had to make a correction.

p.s. Here’s a better look at the 3 eggs with Ecco standing next to them.

18 March 2025

This afternoon Carla got into position at the Cathedral of Learning to lay her second egg of the 2025 season. In the slideshow you see her standing upright with her tail down. After the egg is laid she tips up so her tail feathers don’t drag on the wet egg.

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

Ten minutes later the egg had dried and she was ready arrange them underneath her and go to sleep. This gave us a chance to see both eggs at once.

I expect her to lay four eggs as she did last year. The time between these first two eggs is a little shorter than the same eggs last year. I wonder if this quicker trend will continue.

Watch the Pitt peregrines on the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning.

18 March 2025

The peregrines at East Liberty Presbyterian Church steeple are very active as they prepare to nest.

A week ago on 11 March Jeff Cieslak stopped by and found both birds at home.

He caught one in the act of landing on its favorite floodlight.

And Jeff saw them doing a lot of flying. Adam Knoerzer found out why.

The pair was vigilant on 11 March because a third peregrine showed up and took an interest in their territory. Adam captured a video of the encounter as the pair flew around chirping and drove the intruder toward Morningside/Stanton Heights and the Allegheny River. Turn up the volume to heard their territorial sound. The chirp sounds “happy” but it is not!

Yesterday, 18 March, Adam saw the male flying a lot and both of them perched in their favorite spots.

The female wanted to mate again.

After they mated, the male stopped by the nest.

Don’t let the sticks fool you. Peregrines don’t use sticks but the ledge is sloped and this old red-tailed hawk nest prevents the eggs from rolling off the building. Last year they fledged one youngster from this nest.

Stop by East Liberty to check out the action. With all this mating, eggs are surely on the way

p.s. Brief Update from Downtown Pittsburgh, Third Avenue

On 11 March I viewed Downtown’s Third Avenue nest using my scope from Mt Washington and saw one peregrine dig the scrape and wait on the ledge.

16 March 2025

Today at 1:17pm Carla laid her first egg of the year at Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning peregrine nest. The Pittsburgh area and large swaths of western PA and neighboring states were under a Tornado Watch at the time.

The first heavy downpour and lightning had passed when Carla arrived at the nest at 12:30pm but it was still raining and the wind was gusting to 48 mph. She took one last look at 12:53pm before hunkering down at the scrape.

At 1:22pm she revealed the egg.

Carla will lay her next egg in about two days so watch for it on the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning.

Here is the video clip of Carla laying her first egg of 2025. You can hear wind on the microphone and a distant rally in the park across the street.