21 March 2024

Carla laid her fourth egg at the Cathedral of Learning at 10:25a this morning, 56.4 hours after Egg#3. Most of us didn’t realize it happened. Thanks to Laurie Kotchey’s sharp eyes and her comment on my blog, I knew to start looking for Egg#4 when I got home at 11:30a.

The video below shows the egg-laying moment, sped up to double-time, but you won’t see the egg itself because Carla is facing the camera. Instead, watch her behavior. She eventually stands tall, opens her beak and points it upward. Wait for the moment when she bows down and raises her tail as she lays the egg.

I believe this is Carla’s last egg for the year because she has already started incubation. More about incubation in an upcoming article.

Watch the Pitt peregrines on the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh.

(photo and video from the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

20 March 2024

Back in early February, Malcolm Kurtz stopped by East Liberty Presbyterian Church to photograph the resident peregrines. He found them carrying prey, perching on the steeple and hanging out together.

Malcolm first noticed the birds in December when “[he] saw an adult perched on the steeple from an overlook on Chatham’s main campus.” Good thing he followed up on it. The red aircraft hazard lights, which don’t look red from a distance, had fooled me so often that I stopped looking for raptors on the steeple. Malcolm’s photos show that a perched peregrine is about the same size as the lights but the bird is hard to see. If you’re near the steeple look carefully. How do peregrines manage to match every building they perch on?

While on site on 8 February Malcolm saw the female (at right) bring prey back to the church and eat it while the male looked on (at left). Notice that she is peachy compared to him.

Meanwhile Adam Knoerzer checks on the peregrines every day and has noticed they’ve changed their area of focus. On 14 March he recorded the male flying in with prey and, later, the pair flying together.

The peregrines have been spending a lot more time on the east face of the steeple.

This is the side of the steeple facing Highland Avenue. Around a month ago, I primarily spotted them on the opposite side of the steeple and south face, but they have tended to perch over on this face in the past week or two.

— email from Adam Knoerzer, 14 March 2024

• Green = floodlight where female likes to perch.
• Red = plucking perch where male prepares food for female.
• Blue = possible peregrine nest zone. Shows sticks leftover from old red-tailed hawk nest. Female often perches here at sundown. In first video below, male drops off food at this location.

Their change of venue probably reflects the lack of substrate anywhere else on the structure. This location is probably the only place that has an obstruction to prevent their eggs from rolling off the building.

If you want to see the East Liberty Presbyterian peregrines look from the Highland Avenue side first.

(credits are in the captions)

Carla with 3 eggs at Pitt peregrine nest, 19 March 2024, 2:03am

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19 March 2024

This morning Carla laid her third egg of the 2024 season at 2:01am. Because her nest is visible on a timestamped camera, I can tell you she laid the 3rd egg 52.87 hours after Egg#2. (Egg#2 was 53.14 hours after Egg#1.)

Here’s a video of the egg-laying moment, sped up to double-time, which happens to make it obvious.

By 6:29am Carla had been off the eggs for 90 minutes (standing up). That’s a very long time to be off the eggs if she had already started incubation because they would cool dangerously in this morning’s freezing weather.

Peregrine incubation begins when the female has laid her next-to-last egg but it is always hard to tell when it truly starts if the weather is cold because the adults cover the eggs to keep them from freezing. When incubation truly begins, the parent exposes the brood patch and lays its bare skin against the eggs. Peregrines can vary how much skin is exposed thus delaying the actual start of incubation until the clutch is nearly complete.

Learn more about the parents’ roles in incubation here. By the way, the bird covering the eggs on recent mornings has been Ecco.

Watch the Pitt peregrines on the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh.

p.s. Happy Spring Equinox tonight: 19 March 2024 at 11:06pm.

(photos and video from the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh)

Carla with 2 eggs, 16 March 2024, 21:08

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17 March 2024

Carla laid her second egg last night at the Pitt peregrine nest, 16 March 2024 at 9:08pm.

In this video clip from the National Aviary falconcam we see the actual laying occurred quietly at timestamp 21:08:38. (This is 53.14 hours after her previous egg.)

Carla then raised her tail and remained in a standing position as she waited for the new egg to dry. Though the eggs are actually reddish in daylight, they look white under infrared night light.

After the egg dried Carla roosted on the green perch in front of the nest.

Mother peregrines are the ones who stay at the nest overnight with eggs and chicks while their mates roost nearby. Ecco was apparently roosting within earshot but not very close. I believe he knew she had laid a second egg; he probably watched (off camera) when she laid it.

Carla was still asleep on the perch when it rained at 4:00am. When Ecco woke up at 4:30am he started to wail. Wailing means “I want something to change.” Perhaps Ecco wanted Carla to cover the eggs or maybe he meant, “I want to change places with you.”

Carla woke up and responded with unusual squeaky chirps. She jumped to the nestbox roof and Ecco arrived to cover the eggs. Listen for his voice and the sound of robins singing in the dark at the beginning of this video.

An overnight nest exchange is very unusual but I’ve seen it once before. When Dori was a new mother at the Gulf Tower in 2010, Louie took over incubation in the middle of the night a couple of times (*). Louie had experience raising a family and Dori did not. Perhaps he was getting the eggs through a critical period, waiting until he felt confident that Dori had caught on.

Peregrines are quick studies at being parents but it’s always nice when one of them already knows what’s going on, as Ecco does.

Watch Carla and Ecco as their family grows at the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh.

(*)The nighttime nest exchanges at Gulf Tower in 2010 are described in these vintage blogs.

(credits are in the captions)

14 March 2024, 4:15pm

Happy Egg Day at the Cathedral of Learning! Carla laid her first egg this afternoon, 14 March 2024 at 4:00pm.

This 2-minute video shows the moment she laid the egg.

Have a question about the egg or Carla and Ecco’s behavior? Check out the Peregrine FAQs.

Meanwhile, watch Carla, Ecco and their growing family on the National Aviary Falconcam at Univ of Pittsburgh.

UPDATE: New video added on Friday morning.

Egg Day’s Day-in-a-Minute: 14 March 2024 from 7am to 7pm, compressed into 60 seconds.

• Carla lays the egg at 4pm (16:00).
• Her mate Ecco visits the egg for 3 minutes at 5pm (17:00) then Carla returns to guard it.
• Ecco swaps with Carla and takes care of the egg at 6pm (18:00). He probably brought her food which she’s eating off camera.

Note: Near the end of the video you will see white lines (not cracks) on the egg. DO NOT WORRY. THE EGG IS FINE.

Carla is a first-time mom so she moved the egg around a lot before it was dry. The reddish color is the last thing applied to the white eggshell before it is laid. While the egg is still wet the color can be smudged by the bird’s feathers or scratched by being moved on the gravel.