
Yesterday at 5:30pm Carol D. and Megan Briody saw something that the rest of us missed: This unbanded 1-year-old female peregrine bowed with Terzo at the Cathedral of Learning nest.
Apparently Hope was not at home.
Hope was last seen on camera on Sunday evening, July 31 at 6:49pm. No peregrines visited the nest on Monday. Then yesterday afternoon, August 2, Terzo visited alone several times and often looked up. Was he looking for someone?
At 5:29pm Terzo came to the nest and called to someone. Soon an unbanded young female arrived and they bowed for five minutes. Her color is a mix of gray and brown because she’s molting into adult plumage.

When the session began Terzo was in the back corner but the male peregrine (almost) always leaves the ledge first so the two had to change places. That maneuver was so clumsy that it looked as if the young female chased Terzo away.
But no, Terzo paused on the nestrail to watch her as she bowed again.

He left. And then she left.

Female “intruders” at this site have become a routine occurrence. As I said in my reply to Carol D, Hope has probably gone wandering. Her behavior shows she’s a weak owner of the Cathedral of Learning so I won’t be surprised if she’s chased away next spring and replaced by a new female.
p.s. Click on these links to read Carol D’s and Megan‘s reports. (You might have to scroll down.)
(photos from the National Aviary falconcams at Univ of Pittsburgh)
NOTE: You may have noticed that the time stamp on the snapshot camera was about 4 minutes off. I fixed it this morning.