Outside My Window

Want to see a lot of peregrine falcons on vacation?  I’ve found the perfect place and time to go.

Visit Florida Keys Hawkwatch (FKH) at Curry Hammock State Park near Marathon, Florida in early to mid October.

This hawkwatch site “holds the highest season total for Peregrine Falcon migration, with 2,858 birds observed during the 2003 season, and is the world’s highest daily Peregrine count, with 638 birds counted on October 11, 2008!”

Think of it:  638 peregrines in one day!  

That was exceptional, but normal high-counts at FKH are about 100 peregrines per day.  Here are the peregrine counts from October 2010. Instead of the date, I’ve typed the number of peregrines counted that day.

Florida Keys Hawkwatch welcomes volunteers of all skill levels.  They’ll provide training and housing (see their guidelines) or can direct you to local lodging and resorts. 

If you’ll thinking of a fall vacation this is the perfect place for beaches, boating, fishing and peregrines!

Click here for information on Florida Keys Hawkwatch.  Click here to volunteer and find out about housing/lodging.

Florida Keys Hawkwatch in October!  100 peregrines a day!

(photo by Chad+Chris Saladin)


Lynne Hyatt sent me a link to this video of a sky-diving peregrine from the BBC’s Inside the Perfect Predator.

I think you’ll enjoy it.

p.s. Since I work for television I’ll admit I spent some time thinking about how they got the video footage and how they edited it. Why are buildings and street grids tiny in some shots (was the bird at 20,00 feet?) and normal in others?  Did they use animation?

(video from YouTube and the BBC Video)

Compared to the month of May, Pitt’s peregrines are very quiet in August.  Right now they’re molting, which tends to make them sedentary.  Some days our only view of Dorothy is her back as she roosts high on the Cathedral of Learning in the midday heat.

When we don’t see the peregrines we think they aren’t at home, but the webcam tells us otherwise:  Dorothy and E2 bow at the nest several times a week.

A bowing session usually begins when E2 calls out, “Dorothy, come here!”

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Sometimes it takes her a while to get there.  When she arrives E2 bows low.

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As they chirp and turn their heads, Dorothy warms up and E2 cools off.  It looks like she’s telling him sweet things but E2 has lost interest already.

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E2 always leaves the nest first; Dorothy gazes into thin air.

There are two interesting facts imbedded in these pictures:

• In the first photo, E2 is showing his leg bands.  I was able to read them and, yes, it’s him.
• In the last photo Dorothy has two short tail feathers with white tips.  Those are new feathers.  Her old feathers lost their white tips through wear during the nesting season.  By the time her molt is done she’ll have a white edge on her tail again.

p.s.  D and E’s son “Henry” is still in town.  I saw and heard him on Tuesday evening.  He is one loud peregrine!

(photos from the National Aviary snapshot camera at University of Pittsburgh)

On June 19 Cheryl Mosco sent me a message, “Hi Kate, I’ve been noticing a family of peregrines on top of the St Augustine’s crosses in Lawrenceville. This morning, the parents were feeding their young one of my pigeons that frequently stop by for breakfast.”

Cheryl said the peregrines usually visited between 6:00 and 8:00am and were very noticeable because they screamed and sometimes swooped at each other. 

I should have leapt at her message and gone over to investigate but life got in the way and the message became buried in my mailbox.

On July 23 Cheryl reminded me again, “Did you ever get a chance to check out my peregrines? I’m counting 3 now, hanging around the steeple for the past couple of weeks. … If you stand in Arsenal Park at the 39th [Street] entrance, you can get a pretty good view.”

Yikes! I forgot!  And I wouldn’t be able to get over there for a week.

On Saturday July 30 I drove to Lawrenceville and paused on 39th Street to look at St. Augustine’s.  Yes, there was a peregrine on the cross.  Who was it?

I drove the one-way streets to get a better view and eventually parked close enough to see the bird quite well with my binoculars.  It was Dorothy!

I know you’re going to say, “How do you know it was Dorothy?”  Well, I was close enough to recognize her face.

It’s easy to see why she was there.  A flock of 200 pigeons lives on 39th Street and Dorothy wanted breakfast.  Though she was alone on Saturday, I could imagine her youngsters following her to Lawrenceville and screaming, ”Mom! Get me one of those pigeons!”

Cheryl’s messages solved some mysteries of the past six weeks. 

• When Karen Lang and I couldn’t find Pitt’s peregrines for days in a row they were probably in Lawrenceville. 
• When Cheryl mentioned the peregrines screaming in mid-June, it was while the youngsters were learning to hunt and screaming to their parents for food. 
• The peregrines probably got quieter at the end of June but Henry (Red) hit the SEI windows on July 6 and his parents started feeding him again.  The family returned in July. 
• Henry is a very vocal peregrine – quite a screamer.  As he recovers from his injury, his parents will feed him less and he will scream more … which explains Cheryl’s message on July 30.

July 30:  “One adult or possible two, and a smaller one are up there now, around 7:45 am, Sunday,- and she’s been just screaming up there for about the past hour or so and still, ongoing. I can hear her even over the air conditioner. “  

(Male peregrines are a third smaller than females so that small screamer was probably Henry.)

After I returned from St. Augustine’s I passed along Cheryl’s news to the Pittsburgh peregrine fans and Sharon Leadbitter stopped by to take these pictures.  Here’s her close-up of Dorothy:

Thank you, Cheryl, for telling me about the peregrines at St. Augustine’s.  I wish I’d come over sooner!

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p.s.  Why am I sure this is the Pitt family instead of Gulf ?   Not only did I recognize Dorothy but Pitt is much closer to St. Augustine’s than the Gulf Tower.  Pitt to StAugs is 1.57 air miles.  Gulf to StAugs is 2.32 air miles.   And for completeness, Gulf to Pitt is 2.22 air miles.

(photos by Sharon Leadbitter)

This beautiful bird, the grand peregrine queen of Youngstown, Ohio, died this week. 

Stellar had nested in Youngstown since 2005 with her mate Stammy, who was born at the Cathedral of Learning in 2003.  In human terms this made Stellar Dorothy’s daughter-in-law.

In the early years Stellar and Stammy nested in a cornice hole in the old Stambaugh Building, then in a nestbox at Stambaugh.  Unfortunately the building’s owner had the nestbox removed so the peregrines had to find a new site in 2009.  That year they had success at the Mahoning County Courthouse.

This year a nestbox was provided at the International Towers building.  Stellar laid eggs there but the nest failed so she went back to the Courthouse and laid another clutch.   She hatched three chicks — named Magistrate, Jurist and Marshall (Ohio names their peregrines) — and all three fledged.

On Friday July 15 Karen Lang visited Youngstown and saw the entire family of five.  Days later two of the peregrines went missing:  Jurist and Stellar.   Sadly, Jurist landed on the ground and was killed by a car. 

Stellar was found in a parking area under the Market Street bridge on July 18, very thin with an injured leg.  It appeared that she hadn’t eaten for days.  Though Birds in Flight Sanctuary tried to save her she died that night.  (Read more here.)

Stammy is now alone with two dependent youngsters.  He’s a good dad with years of experience so I’m sure he’ll successfully raise them to independence. 

I’m also sure a new female peregrine will arrive on the scene to become Stammy’s mate.  She’ll have some big shoes — er rather, wingspan — to fill.

(photo of Stellar in flight by Chad+Chris Saladin)

p.s. I’ve featured Stellar in the past at It Takes Two and Concentrate!

So far it’s been an eventful summer for Pittsburgh’s young peregrines.  Here’s the latest news.

Yesterday morning Karen Lang saw the entire Pitt peregrine family near the Cathedral of Learning.  Dorothy and E2 fledged four youngsters this spring but they are now down to two:  the young male and one of his three sisters.   I believe only one sister remains because Yellow died July 4 in a window kill on Henry Street and one juvenile has been missing since June 7.  

We feel lucky to see both youngsters at this point, but I’m sure it’s because the male (“Red”) is still recovering from the concussion he received from his July 6 window accident at Henry Street.   Dorothy and E2 bring him food which prompts his sister to hang around for a handout.   Her loud begging makes the family easy to find.

Red’s injury gained him a new name.  Karen Lang calls him Henry because the biggest event in his life (so far) occurred on Henry Street.   Fortunately the accident was not too serious and Henry’s parents are helping him recover.  It will be several weeks before he’s back in top condition.

Meanwhile, I just learned yesterday that one of the female youngsters at the Gulf Tower (black tape on USFW band) was injured at Macy’s on July 1 and is now in rehab.  If history is any guide, she’ll be there for a couple of months.

And finally, four nestlings were banded at the Monaca-East Rochester Bridge this spring — three males, one female.  The family was present at the bridge when Mark Vass checked on them in mid-June.

No news from the other bridges … yet.

(photo of a juvenile peregrine by Kim Steininger)

Bird blog and peregrine fans, let’s have a reunion!

Back in March at WQED’s peregrine event, we met a lanner falcon who was training for the National Aviary’s new Sky Deck flight show.  I promised then that we’d get together this summer to see him fly.  Now’s the time.  Let’s go to Sky Deck. 

I’ve arranged with Steve Sarro, the Aviary’s Director of Animal Programs, for a fun-filled afternoon in late August.  We’ll meet Steve at:
 The National Aviary, 700 Arch Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
 East Entrance on Arch Street, Concierge desk
 at 2:00 pm on Monday, August 22 (*).

He’ll give us a personal tour of the Aviary.  Then we’ll go up on the roof for the 3:30pm Sky Deck show.  It’s an open air theater where the raptors fly free.  We’ll be thrilled by acrobatic black kites, a powerful martial eagle, and the lanner falcons who remind us of peregrines.  Here’s a lanner on the lure (which resembles a bird) at Sky Deck in June.

The cost is:

• Members of the National Aviary: $5 per person for Sky Deck
• Non-members: $18 per person (includes $13 admission + $5 Sky Deck)
• If our group has 15 or more non-members at the Concierge Desk that day, we’ll get a group rate of $9 per non-member.

Sky Deck seating is limited to 50 people so be sure to email me at peregrines@wqed.org if you plan to come.  We don’t want to turn anyone away at the door.  (NOTE:  All Sky Deck attendees must be at least 42” tall, no babies and no strollers.)

Hope you can make it!  I’m looking forward to seeing you.

For directions and information about the National Aviary, see their website at www.aviary.org

(photo by Chuck Tague)

p.s.  (*) Sky Deck performances require good weather.  If all day rain or severe afternoon weather is certain on August 22, we’ll go on Tuesday, August 23 instead.  Watch the blog for updates.

One incident is unfortunate.  Two is a pattern. 

After one young peregrine died on Monday in this hall of mirrors and a second was injured yesterday, my brain has been working overtime trying to make sense of it all. 

Why were there no peregrine deaths in Oakland during the first five years of nesting but at least one per year since then?   What caused this?  What changed?

From the start of Pitt peregrine nesting in 2002 through the spring of 2007, only one youngster had an accident in Oakland and it didn’t kill him.  Crash hit a window on the Cathedral of Learning, fell into an architectural nook where he was trapped overnight, and was found in the street the next evening with a broken collar bone.  He went to rehab and was released successfully the following February.  (He actually released himself.)

Since 2008 the news has been bad.  Every year at least one juvenile peregrine has died near Fifth Avenue and Craig Street.  In 2008 Sky hit the windows of the Rand Building.  In 2009 a juvenile died in the Webster Hall chimney but wasn’t discovered until October.  In 2010 one juvenile died and another was injured in that same chimney (which was covered immediately).  This year Yellow Girl died and Red was injured hitting the Software Engineering Institute’s windows on Henry Street. 

What is going on?  Why do the juveniles spend time where it’s so deadly? 

My friend Karen Lang has an answer. 

In the spring and summer of 2007 the University of Pittsburgh cleaned the Cathedral of Learning.  Up to that point the building was a pigeon palace with nests in every nook and cranny.  At the end of the cleaning project the building was pigeon-proofed with netting to cover the access points.  With few pigeons at home our juvenile peregrines learn to hunt at the next nearest flock which happens to be at Fifth & Craig.  That area is a much more dangerous zone than the Cathedral of Learning because of its now-covered chimney and two mirror-glass buildings.  

Slowly, we humans are figuring this out.  The chimney was easy to fix.  The windows are harder.  

It would help if the pigeon flock moved to a safer location.

(photo of the Software Engineering Institute hall of mirrors on Henry Street by Kate St. John)

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Update on Red’s condition:  This morning I saw “Red” eating breakfast on Heinz Chapel steeple while both of his parents watched him.  Like all parents they could tell he wasn’t well and needed some extra attention.  Over at St. Paul’s Cathedral steeple, one of his remaining sisters whined.  She seems fine.  I hope she stays away from those windows!

At 9:30am I got a phone call from Bill Powers that he’d heard a peregrine had fallen on Henry Street, another victim of the Software Engineering Institute windows. 

I couldn’t believe it!  Was this an old report about Yellow?   Could a second young peregrine have crashed in the same place so soon?

After several phone calls we determined this was a new accident so I ran to Henry Street with my bird-rescue towel, calling the PA Game Commission’s Beth Fife as I ran.

Fortunately by the time I got there, Red had flown.  Eyewitnesses say he was standing stunned on Henry Street behind SEI where the mirrored office building and mirrored garage are connected by a mirrored second floor walkway.  His imprint was on the walkway glass.  Pigeons circled overhead, reflecting in the glass a thousand ways. 

I called Beth again to let her know the bird had flown.  She said he was probably perched somewhere gathering his wits.  I walked back to work, looking for Red on the ground and on low buildings.  Eventually I found him perched on a building three blocks from the scene.  

Beth assured me this is good news.  He can fly.  He can see well enough to navigate.  He can perch.  He just needs some quiet time to recover.

Oh, how I hope he recovers completely and stays away from Henry Street! 

Meanwhile, let’s work with CMU to correct that hall of mirrors at SEI.  It’s a prime opportunity for bird-friendly redesign.

(photo of Red from about a month ago, taken in early June by Nancy Weixel)

Kathy Borland was doing rounds today (July 4) as a security guard for CMU when she heard there was a dead hawk on Henry Street behind the Software Engineering Institute.  When she got there she found it was a peregrine, one of Dorothy and E2′s brood who hatched this spring at the Cathedral of Learning.

Kathy got in touch with me, I got in touch with the PA Game Commission’s Beth Fife and then I went to see the bird.

It was “Yellow Girl,” the one we saw so close on Heinz Chapel on June 6. 

“Yellow Girl” apparently hit a window on SEI around 1:15pm with so much force that it completely broke her neck.  Kathy found her face down on Henry Street with her wings spread.  She probably died instantly.

Poor Yellow didn’t know what hit her.  She may have been chasing pigeons and thought the window was the sky.  Alas.  There was nothing we could do. 

As I said before, if you want to save birds do something about windows!  

Windows kill.

(photo of deceased juvenile peregrine “Yellow,” black/green, 72/AE, by Kate St. John)