Outside My Window

Since Silver Boy’s death his parents have changed gears.  They’re courting again.

In all my previous experience, Dorothy and E2 have always had other young to feed and teach after the death of a juvenile.  Dorothy would mourn for a day while E2 took care of the “kids.”  Then Dorothy would pick up where she left off and family life would return to normal.

But this year with only one fledgling their parenting duties ended abruptly last Friday.  Instead of mourning they are courting.

When peregrines lose their entire clutch of eggs they immediately resume courtship and lay a second clutch within 14 days.  The earlier in the season this happens, the more likely the second clutch will succeed and fledge.  A complete and early loss of fledglings might trigger the courtship reaction.

On the afternoon of Silver Boy’s death E2 invited Dorothy to bow with him at the nest.  As shown above she sometimes quit bowing before he did, but soon she got into the swing of things.  They’ve been courting several times a day.

As she does before egg laying, Dorothy has begun hanging out at the nest.  Here she stands at the nest in an “egg-y” position. Yesterday I saw her dig the scrape.

And she spent last night at the nest.

Will they raise a second family this year?  No.  There is no record of peregrines ever fledging two broods per year in North America.  Our young peregrines must become independent no later than September.  It takes four to five months to raise a peregrine from egg to self-sustaining juvenile.  There just isn’t time.

And the sun will have its effect.  After this Friday’s solstice the days will get shorter and Dorothy and E2′s breeding hormones will decline.  Soon they’ll stop courting and begin their summer life, lounging and molting.

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

This morning I got a call from Peter Bell and the news was bad.

Peter had just gotten off the bus to come watch Pitt’s peregrine family but instead of finding E2 and his son in the air, he found Silver Boy’s body in the middle of Forbes Avenue in front of the art museum.  He’d been hit by a car.   One of his parents was on Heinz Chapel steeple, staring at the spot where Silver Boy died.

We got permission from the Game Commission to bury this year’s only fledgling. Peter dug the hole and we said goodbye.

The season’s over.  Silver Boy is dead.

(photo by Kate St. John)

p.s.  please see my comment here.

June is “air show” month for our local peregrines.  Where the nests have emptied the action is in the air.

After they fledge, young peregrines are dependent on their parents for six to ten weeks while they learn to supply their own food.

Fortunately, as with all predators, they’re born with an instinct to hunt.  Kittens instinctively stalk and pounce.  Peregrines are programmed to chase.  This means they can develop hunting skills without much parental assistance — which is why hacking works.

In their first weeks after fledging, juvenile peregrines chase anything that flies: their parents, their siblings, butterflies, even turkey vultures.

After two to three weeks they begin to focus on prey the right size.  Eventually they capture something, almost by surprise.

In the meantime they play at all the right moves:  chasing, mock dogfights, roll-overs, talon grappling and prey exchanges.

Above a juvenile in Wilmington, Delaware chases his sibling who won the prize.

Keep looking up and you’ll see the air show.

(photo by Kim Steininger.  This Tenth Page is inspired by and quoted from page 501 of Ornithology by Frank B. Gill.)

At Pitt:  Our youngster is in the “chase me” phase.  If he had brothers and sisters he’d be chasing them. Instead he chases his parents who willingly oblige.  Above, he dives on Dorothy.  Notice the size difference!  Female peregrines are larger.

Those of us who watch him from the ground are currently calling him Silver Boy in keeping with the tradition of ID-by-color of the USFW band.  (His band has no colored tape; it’s silver.)  When we text each other he’s SB, two initials that happen to include all his previous non-names as well.

Downtown:  There’s been no news of this family since the week they fledged except for this:  Last Friday a dead female juvenile peregrine was found on Grant Street, her body recovered by Beth Fife.  This was one of at least two females hatched at the Downtown nest this year.  We know there were at least two because one female was rescued on May 30 while another was still unfledged in the nest.

If you have any news from Downtown, please post a comment.

I-79 Neville Island Bridge:  These peregrines have been a lot of fun to watch.  At 4:00pm yesterday Laura Marshall reported that all three birds had fledged and were staying up high.  Then at 7:00pm she and Anne Marie Bosynak were standing in the park-n-ride lot when one of the juvie males flew rapidly across the river from Glenfield and tried to land in the bushy trees near them.  This was probably his first encounter with vegetation and he got tangled in the branches.  Like any toddler he called for Mom, picked himself up and apparently tried again on another set of bushes.   His parents merely watched.  Youthful enthusiasm!

Westinghouse Bridge:  Fledge Watch begins tomorrow!

Monaca Bridge:  Last Friday Becky Smith saw two peregrines flying and swooping with each other at the big black railroad bridge.  Their behavior this spring indicates they have young in the nest who may be ready to fly.  Stop by the bridge and see if you can spot fledglings.

Tarentum Bridge:  Though this nest failed Rob Protz reports that the peregrines are still there.  Occasionally he gets a good view of the female.

Green Tree water tank:  This nest failed as well but Mary Jo Peden and Shannon Thompson report that one or both peregrines are visible nearly every time they stop by.  I stopped by on Sunday and saw the female.

Our peregrines are off camera now but they’re really busy.  Check them out at any of these locations.

(photo by Peter Bell)

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 and has provided everything you need to know on his website including contact information.

Contact John to coordinate your visit.  Check his website or Pittsburgh Falconuts Facebook group for more information.

Happy flying, little bird.

(bridge photo by John English.  Peregrine photo by Dan Brauning, PA Game Commission)

In good weather this is what Pitt’s peregrines see every day.  From their perspective, the sky is the most interesting part.

We, of course, find the ground more interesting so it takes up most of the picture.

Between our two points of view is the horizon. Notice how the edge is flat, no hills or mountains.

Pittsburgh was the shore of an ancient inland sea (we used to be at the beach!) and our hills are actually erosion cuts into that flat landscape.  The tops of the hills are what’s left of the original shore and they’re all the same height — about 1200 feet above sea level.  Chestnut Ridge, 34 miles away, is the nearest mountain but it’s only 2,119 feet high, easy for birds to cross.

In the valley below the Cathedral of Learning, near the bottom right of this photo, is the Schenley Plaza tent where we sat during Fledge Watch.  To a peregrine we humans are mere dots.

But they probably weren’t looking at us.  They’re more interested in the sky. 

(photo by Chloe Fan on Wikimedia Commons.  Click on the image to see the original.  This photo was taken in 2009 prior to construction of The Porch restaurant.  Can you tell what else has changed? )

p.s. See this comment for news of Pitt’s juvenile peregrine and the comments on yesterday’s blog for news from the I-79 Neville Island Bridge.

It’s embarrassing to give advice and not benefit from it myself.

Yesterday morning I met Laura Marshall and Gene Henderson for Fledge Watch at the I-79 Neville Island Bridge.

While we watched from the Fairfield Inn lot, Laura described the nest location in the middle of the span and I gave pointers on how to find the fledglings:  “Watch the parents.  They’ll show you where the fledglings are.”

In the beginning both peregrine parents were perched on a bridge abutment on the Glenfield side.  Gene had been over there but they made warning sounds so he left.

The adults stayed at Glenfield a long time and then, in an unusual move, both flew to our side of the river and perched on a similar abutment.  (Here’s Gene’s photo of an adult on that abutment.)

Sometimes the mother bird, Magnum, swooped down to the river and disappeared for a while. Sometimes we heard a juvie whining.

I walked to the Park-n-ride lot with two Fairfield Inn guests but we had to stay back because “Dad” peregrine made warning sounds at our approach.

Did we benefit from these parental clues?  No.

Laura guided me and Tricia McIntyre to the Glenfield side where she has permission to watch the birds on private land.  Magnum was still on the abutment on Neville Island and we saw two juvies walk the I-beam near the nest. None of us had seen the third juvie yet when Laura said, “There’s a peregrine on the piling across the river.”  Ta dah!  It was the third bird. He had fledged!

He was safe from predators on a concrete island eight feet above the water.  His parents visited and demonstrated how to flap away.  He dealt with three people in a fishing boat by shouting and walking away.  (Read about the boat beginning with Mark B’s comment here.)  He was fine.

In retrospect Magnum and her mate showed us exactly what was going on.  I’ll bet their fledgling was on the Glenfield side when Gene was over there — hence their warning.  They accompanied their son when he flew to the Neville Island side and “dad” warned us away.  Magnum swooped down to the piling and we heard the juvie’s calls echo under the bridge.

I should learn from my own advice:  “Watch the parents.  They’ll show you where the fledglings are.”

(photo by Gene Henderson)

p.s.  Fledge Watchers still needed at this bridge!  Click here for directions.

Peregrines are famous for speed when diving on their avian prey.  The dive was named a “stoop” because the word means “to bend the head or body downward and forward.”

The stoop is amazing in many ways:

• Peregrines dive at a 30 to 60 degree angle.
• They may start the stoop 5,000 feet away from the prey and drop 1,500 to 3,400 feet in altitude.  These distances are exceeded when a falcon sky-dives with a falconer.
• Land-based speed calculations have clocked them at 100 to 273 miles per hour.  Falconer Ken Franklin sky dives with his falcon at 242 mph.
• Peregrines can accelerate from 100 to 200 mph in eight seconds according to Ken Franklin.
• At 150 mph they tuck their wings tight and extend their shoulders, making their bodies into a diamond shape.
• At 200 mph peregrines pull in their shoulders and extend their heads to become extremely streamlined.
• Because their acute vision is at a 40 degree angle, they reduce drag and keep an eye on their prey by not diving straight at it.  Instead they spiral downward keeping the prey to the side so they can see it.  Their logarithmic spiral is rarely noticeable from the ground.

Here are three examples of diving peregrines, thanks to Chad+Chris Saladin.

Above, Mo is tucked into an arrow shape in Canton, Ohio.

Below, Rocky at Cuyahoga Valley National Park shows how peregrines hold their wings slightly open at the shoulder.  If he was going faster his shape would be more angular.

And finally, Dorothy and E2′s son Henry shows off his flying prowess at Tower East in Shaker Heights, Ohio.   His angle of attack is dramatic but he’s not traveling so fast that he has to tuck in his wings.

He stoops and conquers.

(photos by Chad+Chris Saladin. Today’s Tenth Page is inspired by page 122 of Ornithology by Frank B. Gill.)

p.s.  She Stoops To Conquer is a play by Oliver Goldsmith first performed in 1773.

Fledge Watchers needed!

The three peregrine nestlings at the I-79 Neville Island Bridge are due to fledge in the next seven days.  Laura Marshall and Anne Marie Bosnyak need your help observing at this site.  If a fledgling lands in the river he must be rescued or he will drown.

Weather permitting, Laura will be watching at these dates and times if you wish to join her.  Meet her under the Fairfield Inn sign on Neville Island.

• Wednesday June 5, 10:00-12:00.
• Thursday June 6, on and off 7:30-11:30.
• Friday, June 7, off and on all day on both sides of the river.  Stop below the Fairfield Inn sign.  If no one’s there, look for Laura with binoculars on the other side of the river and wave.  She’ll come over and bring you around to Glenfield side where she has permission to stand.
• Saturday, June 8, 7:30-9:30am.  If you can come at other times, please do!
• Sunday, June 9, after 12:00pm.
• Next week to be announced: Anne Marie will coordinate on Monday.

If you can’t make it at these times, please visit on your own.  Watchers at all times are greatly appreciated!  Click here for directions.

Leave a comment if you wish to contact Laura directly and I’ll put you in touch with her.

(photo of I-79 Neville Island Bridge from Wikimedia Commons)

Monday was a down-and-up day.

The weather started out “down,” cold and cloudy.  Around 7:00am Peter Bell texted me that he thought Dorothy and E2′s chick had fledged at Pitt.  This information was followed by almost four hours of confusion.

At 7:20am I was on Forbes Ave at CMU and could see Dorothy and E2 on the nest side of the Cathedral of Learning staring intently into the gully.  If their youngster had fledged, why were they looking in the gully?  Peter walked around the building and couldn’t find the fledgling.  Did he fly?

We both had work to do so the suspense remained until Peter went back to the Plaza at 11:00am.  By then it was obvious.  Baby had fledged.  He was perched on the west 25th floor ledge.  Things were looking up.

That’s where he stayed all day.  Kim Getz saw him from inside the building at lunchtime and sent this photo from her zoom camera.  (She was careful to stand far back from the window so he wouldn’t notice her and be startled into flight. Thank you, Kim!)

At 7:00pm the sky cleared and Dorothy brought dinner in an amazing aerobatic display.  They shared the meal, then she gave him a flight demonstration and perched were she could watch his area.  He walked back to a quiet corner to roost on 25.

Here they are at dinner time: Baby on left, Dorothy on right.  He’s not such a “baby” anymore.

The day ended “up.”

Come see him at Fledge Watch today at the Schenley Plaza tent:  noon to 2:00pm and 5:30pm to 7:00pm.

(first and last photos by Peter Bell. Middle photo by Kim Getz)