Late breaking news! A healthy young peregrine will fledge from the Westinghouse Bridge this weekend. Join his Fledge Watch, June 13-18.
This is a Watch we thought would never happen.
When Dan Brauning and Art McMorris visited the Westinghouse Bridge on May 16 the lone nestling was seven days old and appeared to be handicapped and unlikely to survive. In late May PennDot’s John Kleiber checked on the bird and was surprised to find a healthy, well fed youngster.
Yesterday Dan Brauning and Tom Keller of the PA Game Commission visited again, intending to band the bird, but he was too old to approach. In Dan’s photo below you can see he’s already fully feathered and might have flown too soon with dangerous results.
Dan estimates this youngster will fledge on or about June 15.
So, yes, there will be a Fledge Watch at the Westinghouse Bridge beginning this Thursday. John English is organizing the watch.
Contact John to coordinate your visit. Check Pittsburgh Falconuts Facebook group for more information.
Happy flying, little bird.
(bridge photo by John English. Peregrine photo by Dan Brauning, PA Game Commission)
Curious. I haven’t had much time to follow along lately. How is that the bird appeared handicapped? What kind of indications were there?
I love the 2nd photo. The bird certainly looks like a typical awkward teen.
First indications were that he was too young to band. He also appeared to be having convulsions and a deformed beak. PGC did not want to leave the catwalk to take a closer look for fear of stressing the parents. PennDOT agreed to check on his condition. 11 days later he was fat and perky 🙂
posted your wonderful link to my personal facebook page <> then shared it to my <> page
your site is monumentally magnificent . . . awe inspiring in fact
galactic thanks for re-igniting a dormant fuse on an old powder keg of desire in me to tell the story of hacking peregrines in the early days of continent wide urban release
i used to city hack captive bred peregrines (canadian red band), and then i was privileged to manage and surveil subsequent urban wild hatching (canadian black band)
i’ve seen peregrines now from british columbia to quebec, and from brazil (a tercel said to be tundrius in vitória) to las vegas to edmonton
most of my ‘hands on’ and ‘in focus’ experience, however, is from regina, saskatchewan and toronto, ontario . . . along with some from calgary, alberta as well
about one of your earliest peregrine notes (nov 20, 2007) concerning red-tailed hawks losing out to peregrine territoriality . . . i’ve seen individual red-tailed hawks (and swainson’s hawks, turkey vultures, bald eagles . . . and even kestrels, prairie falcons and interloping other peregrines) absolutely humiliated and trounced by angry territorial peregrines . . . (some, several kestrels and likely at least one prairie, were outright killed and summarily dismissed from consequent deliberation)
to note somewhat further though, when peregrines encroach on red-tailed hawk territory, the peregrine(s) is(are) always ingloriously dispatched . . . at least, that is, so far as i’ve ever seen in toronto, where nesting red-tails far outnumber nesting peregrines . . . ‘territorial imperative’ perhaps?
thanks again . . . CHEERS!!!
jt