Outside My Window

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The major studios have come out with their summer action flicks.  Now I have one too. 

Nine weeks ago I spent my lunch hours at Schenley Plaza waiting for the peregrines to fledge at the University of Pittsburgh.  On June 2nd WQED’s Web intern, Christa Majoras, came to Fledge Watch with a video camera and recorded the event.  Then she edited it into a short video which I’ve saved as a treat for you today.  (OK, I’ll admit it.  I didn’t have time until now to learn the Flash plug-in.)

Click the Play button above to see the results.  If you don’t know what I look like, now you will.  I’m the one with the hat and sunglasses who’s talking all the time. 

Special thanks to Linda, Libby and Betsy for being part of this video. 

p.s. for after the movie:  The Jersey shore is only part of the answer.  They also go here.

p.p.s.  See the new Peregrine FAQ on fledge watching.

At this time of year our juvenile peregrines are about to leave home.  Some of them may have left already on the journey of their lives. 

Where do they go?  See a new entry on the Peregrine FAQs page for answers.

(*FAQs are frequently asked questions.)

Over the past few weeks I’ve put updates in the comments of other posts so you may have missed them. Here’s the latest on these two raptor families. 

Gulf Tower peregrine falcons: 
On Tuesday Heather Jacoby saw a peregrine falcon perched on a windowsill at the Oliver Building downtown (click here and here to see her photos).  Interestingly, Heather sent me this picture of Tasha doing the same thing a year ago.  For some reason the Queen of the Gulf Tower likes this spot in the summer.

Tasha’s two youngsters are doing well.  The young peregrine who hit her head and was rescued from the street on June 10th has fully recovered and was released on July 8th.  Beth Fife said, “She flew very nicely, circled and flew off.” I don’t know where she was released but it wasn’t downtown. She is now independent and on her own.

The other juvenile is also doing well. Around July 7th she was spotted perched on a high windowsill of the Frick Building, looking into an office to see what was going on. This is typical behavior for the downtown juvenile peregrines as you can see here.

CMU red-tailed hawks: 
The young red-tails born on the Fine Arts Building at Carnegie-Mellon University are almost independent now.  They’re flying well and able to chase their parents to beg for food.  During my lunchtime walk on Tuesday I saw both juveniles perched in a dead tree on Flagstaff Hill.  They were preening and sleepy but one of them whined occasionally just in case their parents needed an audio reminder.

I’m glad everything’s going well.

(photo by Heather Jacoby)

Look closely and you’ll see a juvenile peregrine falcon spreading her wings among the rooftop rubble. 

This picture was taken in early June when the young peregrines were staying very close to home.  Nowadays they’re usually away from the Cathedral of Learning, exploring western Pennsylvania and making wider and wider forays away from town, so when I saw three in the past two days I was quite pleased. 

On Tuesday at lunchtime the youngest of the four peregrines was perched low on Heinz Chapel roof looking hard at the treetops nearby.  I could tell who she was because she has green tape on her FWS band.  And I could tell she was hunting because she bobbed her head as she scanned the trees.  The robins warned, “Danger! Peregrine!” but some of the other birds didn’t believe it.  “Danger?” they thought, “From her?”  Sure enough she swooped off the roof, grazed the treetops and grabbed a bird for lunch.  Good job!

Then yesterday morning at work I looked out the window as I walked down the hall.  Way out there I could see two peregrines flying around the top of the Cathedral of Learning.  They acted like juveniles so I ran to get my binoculars.  Yes!  Two young peregrines were playing Chase-me and Talon-touch games.  What joy to see them having fun!

Soon the young peregrines will leave Pittsburgh for good.  They’ll benefit from these serious games that prepared them for life.

(photo by Kimberly Thomas at the University of Pittsburgh)

Remember when this year’s peregrine falcon nestlings were this young? 

It doesn’t seem possible that it’s been only seven weeks since this picture was taken on Banding Day at the Gulf Tower, May 19th. 

(photo by Jay Verno for The Gulf Tower, 110 Gulf Associates and Rugby Realty Co.)

While many birds still have babies in the nest, the season is over for our peregrine falcons.  Their nestlings fledged in early June and their young will soon be off on their own.

In July the webcams show us nothing but shadows, weeds and old feathers.  Rather than pay to broadcast an empty nest the Pitt webcam stopped streaming in mid-June and the Gulf Tower camera will stop soon. 

It’s a shame to have nothing to watch.  To fill this gap - and because I miss seeing the peregrines myself – I made a slideshow of Pitt’s season highlights for my blog and for the Aviary’s website.  Click here or on E2’s picture for the blog slideshow.  The Aviary’s will be slightly different.

Meanwhile, I’m sure you’re wondering how I got this recent close-up of E2 since I just said nothing’s on the webcam. 

All year long E2 avoids the limelight.  Unlike Dorothy, E2 prefers not to perch near windows.  He avoids having anyone see him up close and this makes it extremely hard to read his bands and confirm that he is indeed the peregrine father at Pitt.  

The solution is rather simple.  In July E2 likes to visit the empty nest – who knows why – so we zoom the webcam and use the motion-detection snapshots to read his bands.   Here he is four days ago blatantly presenting his banded leg to the camera. 

If I go by his appearance I’m sure it’s E2 with his white forehead and swaggering stance, but his bands are a little hard to read.  I’ll have to wait for another good snapshot to be sure.

(This and the slideshow photos are from the National Aviary’s webcam at Univ. of Pittsburgh)

Sightings of the peregrine falcons born this year at the University of Pittsburgh are harder and harder to come by these days.

Now that they’ve learned to fly, they’ve ventured beyond the Cathedral of Learning to explore other buildings and other neighborhoods.

On a good day I see two out of a possible six peregrines in Oakland.  Often I see none.  One thing’s for certain.  They’re learning to hunt.

Young peregrines learn their life skills in at least two ways  The first is by play.  Only three days after fledging juvenile peregrines chase their siblings in a game that perfects their flight and maneuvering abilities.  Soon they add mock food exchanges to their repertoire.  Two youngsters fly together, one of them flips upside down with talons extended and they pretend to exchange food the way they’ve seen their parents do. 

Their parents teach them the serious lessons.  Pictured here is an adult peregrine holding prey down for his youngster to grab in a real life food exchange.  The young peregrine is learning eye-talon coordination and the ability to catch food while flying – something he’ll have to do for the rest of his life as he hunts on the wing.

When Erie was the resident male at Pitt, he taught his youngsters these skills in the airspace between Heinz Chapel and the Cathedral of Learning.  Digby, who used to work at Heinz Chapel, told me there were many times when a wedding party leaving the Chapel in June would be greeted by peregrines calling overhead and chasing their father to grab dinner.  Digby used to warn the wedding planners that if they wanted to release doves on the campus lawn, they shouldn’t expect to get them all back!

For the past two years I’ve noticed E2 prefers to mix it up a bit.  He starts teaching his offspring near St. Paul’s Cathedral perhaps because there are more pigeons over there.  When those pigeons become wary he moves to another location.  Yesterday he was back on campus in the Heinz Chapel airspace.

What luck that I got to see them at lunchtime!  The entire peregrine family was perched on the Cathedral of Learning facing Heinz Chapel.  The “kids” were obviously hungry and restless. Suddenly E2 dove straight down the face of the Cathedral of Learning and soared away on the hunt.  

I waited under a shade tree (it was hot!) and soon the youngsters flew off the building in excitement.  E2 was returning with food.  I missed the prey exchange (my shade tree blocked the view) but I saw the “kid” who caught the prey carry it to Heinz Chapel steeple, pursued by his sister. 

Another lesson learned.

(photo by Kim Steininger)

A juvenile peregrine falcon prepares to fly from the edge of the Cathedral of Learning, June 2009.

(photo by Colette Ross)

 
A young peregrine falcon bathes in a rooftop puddle on the Cathedral of Learning, June 2009.

(photo by Kimberly Thomas)

That’s what this young peregrine falcon seems to be saying to her sister.  They were hanging out on the 25th floor ledge at the Cathedral of Learning last week waiting for food deliveries from their parents.  Kimberly Thomas was able to see them from the 27th floor so she took their picture, though from afar.

It’s been hard to get a good look at the Pitt peregrines ever since they fledged.  They’re still on campus at dawn and dusk but they usually perch high on the Cathedral of Learning and can only be seen with binoculars.  If you work in the building the peregrines are sometimes just outside your window.  Oh how lucky!

This week the juveniles will explore Oakland.  Today at lunch I found only one young peregrine on the Cathedral of Learning but on my way back to work I found the other three – plus their father -  chasing each other around the steeples of St. Paul’s Cathedral.  Peregrines in training!

(photo by Kimberly Thomas)