Gulf Tower

[Donna]

http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_gt.php

Live Cam

[Donna]

http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php

Falcon there now  LIVE

[Donna]

2 eggs for Dorothy

http://www.aviary.org/cons/falconcam_cl.php

[Donna]

    The Cathedral of Learning is many things — a symbol of higher education, a quiet study area surrounded by Gothic Revival architecture and, quite literally, a lovers’ nest.

Dorothy, an 11-year-old peregrine falcon, and her partner, E2, have nested at the very top the Cathedral of Learning since 2002. Dorothy recently laid three eggs — the third just two nights ago — in the sandy nest, which is being monitored by the National Aviary in Pittsburgh.

Kate St. John, a volunteer who monitors the pair of peregrine falcons, calls the building “the Taj Mahal for falcons.�

“The Cathedral of Learning is fantastic. It’s a gorgeous building, [with a] good view, and the nearest nest is far away, so there’s no competition,� said St. John, who has been monitoring falcons since 2001.

Because peregrine falcons nest on cliffs with sand and gravel, the Cathedral provides the right environment for the falcons, albeit with an urban twist, said St. John. Sand and gravel are necessary for the falcons to dig a shallow “bowl� to prevent eggs from rolling away, so some was provided by the National Aviary when it was discovered Dorothy and her previous partner, Erie, had nested there, St. John said.

Dan Brauning, the Wildlife Diversity Chief of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, said the Pittsburgh environment is “suitable� for the falcons.

“To some degree they are successful in the urban setting because they avoid predation. The buildings and bridges have cliff-like resemblances. There are plenty of songbirds for food,� Brauning said.

The nest at Pitt has produced 29 fledglings since 2002, but Dorothy flew to Pittsburgh from Wisconsin in 2001, according to the National Aviary website.

Dorothy — who was named after a parking lot attendant who monitored falcons — hatched in Wisconsin in 1999. When she was about a year old, Dorothy flew to Pittsburgh. Because Dorothy had been banded after she hatched, the National Aviary was able to find out from where she had flown. Dorothy’s long journey is consistent with the nomadic tendencies of peregrine falcons.

“Peregrines wander. They don’t migrate. They go every which way,� St. John said.

In 2002, Dorothy first nested in Pittsburgh with her mate, Erie, who was identified from his band as coming from Columbus, Ohio. Erie, who made national news for fighting and killing a competing male falcon from Cleveland, mysteriously disappeared in October 2007.

Erin Estell, assistant director of Animal Programs at the National Aviary, said there are a number of different scenarios explaining the disappearance of Erie. E2 (short for Erie 2) could have fought off Erie, or Erie could have died, Estell said.

While peregrine falcons don’t necessarily mate for life, they will often mate with the same partner if both consenting individuals show up at the mating site during mating season. After the babies fly away, the adult falcons will migrate to different winter grounds.

Erie’s unexplained absence left Dorothy single, but she didn’t remain on the market for long.

“Dorothy doesn’t die of heart sickness. She finds another mate,� Estell said.

E2, who was hatched at the Gulf Tower in Pittsburgh, arrived on the scene in fall 2007, and in spring 2008, Dorothy began nesting with him. Three eggs nestled on top of the Cathedral mark the third time Dorothy and E2 have made a generous contribution to the peregrine population.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and the National Aviary band eyases, or baby falcons, when they are around three to four weeks old. When eyases are banded depends on the size of the bird, Estell said. The people in charge of banding the eyases wait for the feet to be completely grown so that the band does not get too tight or fall off.

While it is possible to track falcons through the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s telemetry research study (available through the Pennsylvania Game Commission website), the bands serve as an identification and research tool, Brauning said.

Because of the bands, two falcons  who hatched at the Cathedral have been located and identified by falcon watchers in the area. A female hatched in 2007 was last recorded at her own nesting site in Rochester, N.Y., last year. The second falcon, a male hatched in 2008, was spotted last December in Tarentum, Pa., according to Brauning and the National Aviary.

The peregrine falcon was removed from the national list of endangered species in 1999, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, but peregrine falcons remain a Pennsylvania Endangered Species. The banding of the falcons has helped monitor the birds, and while it does not directly contribute to the repopulation of peregrine falcons, it does serve as a tool, Brauning said. He also said the banning of DDT in 1972, a pesticide used on crops and forest lands, was a prerequisite to helping the falcons repopulate.

Now, Brauning says that the Pennsylvania Game Commission helps protect peregrines from human activity. Their numbers are still small, with only 1700 breeding pairs in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Pennsylvania Game Commission. Peregrine falcons can be found on all places of the earth except Antarctica; in addition to the Cathedral of Learning, Pittsburgh has other nesting locations at the Gulf Tower in Downtown, East Rochester-Monaca Bridge and 62nd Street Bridge, according to the National Aviary website.

Although Dorothy and E2 have been exposed to humans since birth, St. John stresses that these birds are not pets.

“They do not like people. They will attack anyone who messes with their nest,� St. John said. “But, they will put up with people being around.�

While the urban environment does provide certain amenities — like an unlimited supply of pigeons to eat — there are certain dangers in Pittsburgh that don’t exist in a falcon’s natural habitat.

One of the most common ways for falcons to die is to collide with window panes, Brauning said. In June 2008, a Pittsburgh falcon crashed into the Rand Building and broke his neck, according to a previous article in The Pitt News.

People can watch live video of the famous lovers in their nest on The National Aviary’s website. St. John writes about the peregrines in her blog, Outside My Window, which is on the WQED website.

The typical mating season of peregrines lasts from late March through May, according to Defenders of Wildlife. The average nest usually has three to four eggs, which will hatch after about 30 days of gestation.   

[Donna]

Gulf Tower falcon lays egg
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Tasha2, the female peregrine falcon at the Gulf Tower, Downtown, has laid her first egg of the season.

Closeup views of the nest are available via the National Aviary's Pittsburgh FalconCam.

Dorothy, the falcon at the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh, laid her first egg last week and has produced three eggs in total. View Dorothy's nest..

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10076/1043509-100.stm#ixzz0icIje1Lt

[Donna]

Something strange has been going on at Gulf Tower since last weekend.  Now we know why!

It began Friday night, March 19.  Tasha sat on the nest at 10:40pm and watched the sky.  Within minutes she stepped out of view and from that point onward we heard periodic wailing for most of the night, though no peregrine was visible.  Wailing can mean many things including “come hereâ€� and “stay away,â€� but it isn’t the sound of peregrines locked in combat.

That night there was no evidence of a fight at the nest — no fight sounds, no birds on camera.

An hour before dawn Tasha returned to the nest and slept.  Half an hour later Louie arrived and tried to bow with her but Tasha would not bow.  She looked at him, then left to tackle whatever was out there.  It was a young female peregrine challenging her for the site.

For three and a half hours nothing happened.  Silence.  Then Tasha arrived at the nest, all pumped up and running on adrenaline (if peregrines have adrenaline).  She was sleeked for battle and her left wing drooped, an old injury she hid most of the time.  She shouted excitedly to Louie and left quickly. 

Louie lingered at the nest for several minutes.  At one point he stood over Tasha’s two eggs, yipping softly, but something in the sky soon distracted him and he bounded off stage.  In half an hour Tasha appeared again very briefly.  That was 10:45am, the last time she appeared on camera.

Seven hours of silence.  Nothing except for two brief visits by Louie alone.

Then at 5:45pm Louie arrived at the nest and called, “Come bow with me.â€�  His audience needed encouragement.  He called and called, bowed and bowed.  Finally his new lady arrived, a female peregrine with a pale back, no white wing feather and in top physical condition.  For the next several hours they repeatedly courted at the nest.  She was now his queen.

That was Saturday night, March 20.  There are no video archives for several days after that, but everyone watching the falconcam knew the situation was odd.  Why were two peregrines at the nest but no one incubating the eggs? 

Yesterday Dr. Todd Katzner of the National Aviary went to the Gulf Tower to solve the mystery.  He was able to observe the new female and read her bands as she courted with Louie: black/green M/93.  Born at the Landmark Building in Akron, Ohio in 2007, her back is paler than Tasha’s and her wings are normal.  She has no white wing feather.

Since Monday the fervent peregrine watchers at Make-A-Wish, whose offices are near the nest, suspected Tasha was gone forever.  They’ve been Tasha’s fans for many years and were sad about this turn of events, so they wanted to honor the new female with a happy, hopeful name.  Even before they knew her identity they called her Dori, which means “wishâ€� in Romanian. (*)

Dori has wanted to nest in Pittsburgh for quite a while.  She first tried the 62nd Street Bridge where she was identified last October by Dan Yagusic, but she kept a lonely vigil there, unable to attract a mate to the site.  In January Dan found her at the 40th Street Bridge, still alone.

As spring approached her hormones kicked in as they do for all peregrines.  Dori needed a nest and a mate.  The bridges were fruitless.  She flew downstream… and the rest is history.

Tasha was a very successful peregrine.  When she disappeared last weekend she was at least 14 years old and had raised 44 young at the Gulf Tower.   

We wish the same great success for Dori.  May she live long and have many babies! 

And, yes, we’re all watching for her first egg.

(two snapshots of Dori from the National Aviary webcam at the Gulf Tower)

p.s. Remember the video of two peregrines courting on Saturday evening?  I was wrong!  Tasha isn’t in that picture.  They’re Louie and Dori.  Click here to watch.

(*) Dori has many names.  Dori is her nest site name, Mary Cleo is her banding day name, and Louie has a special name for her that is unpronounceable by humans.

[Donna]

Dorothy, the falcon at the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh, laid her first egg last week and has produced three eggs in total. View Dorothy's nest..

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10076/1043509-100.stm#ixzz0icIje1Lt


5 eggs for Beauty's mom.

[Donna]

For all his majesty, Louie was not much taller than a folded newspaper. He alighted on his nest at the Gulf Tower Wednesday and glared through an office window. Then, standing near two lonely eggs, he turned his head and chirped to the sky.

"He's calling her," said Ann Hohn, who works at the Make-A-Wish Foundation, on the other side of the glass. The Make-A-Wish employees daily watch the Gulf Tower's peregrine falcons, and for years, the only birds they have known were Louie and his mate, Tasha 2.

But on March 20, Tasha 2 disappeared. She has since been replaced by a new female, Dori. Louie remained, as did Tasha 2's recently laid eggs, which Louie incubates fitfully as he courts his new love interest.

It has been a two-week melodrama, staged 37 floors above the city and scripted by a community of devoted followers. The threads of the story are classic: an aging mother ousted from her home, a victorious upstart discovering her new life, a dutiful male shuttled between partners.

"We make up all sorts of conversations that have nothing to do with reality," said Ms. Hohn.

The local bird-lovers who watch the nest's 24-hour webcam know that Dori's ascent is the natural order of things. Tasha 2 was at least 14 years old: ancient by peregrine standards.

"She was elderly," said Kate St. John, a WQED employee who blogs about the city's falcons.

Still, Tasha 2's fans cannot help but hurt for her.

"Our theory is that she just said 'To heck with this!' and went to Florida," said Ms. Hohn. "She's not dead. She's retired."

The reality, like many things about the story's characters, is only partly understood. What is known is this:

America's peregrine falcon population, once severely thinned by exposure to the pesticide DDT, has been slowly replenishing.

In 2009, there were 25 "active nesting pairs" in Pennsylvania, said Dan Brauning, wildlife diversity chief for the state Game Commission. Louie and Tasha 2 were one of four pairs in the Pittsburgh area, where peregrine falcons have successfully mated at the Gulf Tower since 1991.

Tasha 2 arrived at the man-made nest in 1998. She raised dozens of chicks there with two mates. (Louie replaced Boris after a bloody 2003 coup.)

"She had a good long run of it," said Mr. Brauning.

Her reproductive capacity was diminishing, though. Some of the eggs she laid in recent years did not hatch, said Todd Katzner, the National Aviary's director of conservation and field research.

Meanwhile, Dori was migrating from her Ohio birthplace. The 3-year-old bird was first observed and identified in October 2009, near the 62nd Street Bridge.

"Presumably what happened is that she was scouting around, looking for greener pastures," said Dr. Katzner. "She saw this territory at the Gulf Tower that was occupied by a bird that she thought she could displace."

From there, any story is speculative, he said: "We don't know what happened to Tasha 2. What we do know is that Tasha 2 had laid two eggs in the nest box and then suddenly disappeared."

Ms. St. John, who regularly watches the webcam, said she had noticed Tasha 2 looking nervous recently, and late March 19, the bird began to wail ceaselessly.

"The wailing call can mean many things," said Ms. St. John. "It can mean 'Come here.' It can mean 'Go away.' "

When dawn arrived, Louie returned to the nest and tried to court his mate. Instead, Tasha 2 immediately left.

The next time she appeared on camera, said Ms. St. John, "feathers were flying off of her." Her wing drooped, the sign of an old injury she usually hid. She appeared only once more.

That evening, Louie began the rituals of a new courtship, bowing to an unseen bird. Finally, Dori arrived and they bowed together.

Since then, Dori has mostly ignored Tasha 2's eggs. Dr. Katzner said it is theoretically possible that the eggs will hatch, but that most likely, Dori will soon lay eggs of her own.

Falcon fanatics watching the webcam this week have seen Dori and Louie courting furiously.

"We are trying to figure out what they're up to," said Ms. St. John. "The peregrine people, oh my gosh. We're all crazy," she laughed.

Wednesday, Ms. Hohn spoke lovingly of watching chicks hatch in years past. She said she was shocked when Tasha 2 disappeared.

"We just felt that she would fight off anyone," she said, as Louie appeared in the window.

A few minutes later, with Dori nowhere in sight, he swooped away.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10092/1047335-53.stm#ixzz0k2AppFX3

[Donna]

At the Gulf Tower peregrine nest, Dori laid her first egg last night, Friday April 2, at 10:45pm.  She laid it in the same scrape where Tasha, the former resident female, had laid her two eggs before she lost the site to Dori.

According to Birds of North America Online, for peregrines “completed copulations begin at least 2 wk prior to egg-laying.â€�  Dori won the site on March 20 so my mental calculation had her first egg arriving two weeks later.  This first egg is right on time – even a little early.   

In the top photo, Dori is guarding the eggs.  In the bottom photo, a close-up:  two of the eggs are Tasha’s, one is Dori’s new one.  Thanks to all who sent me snapshots.

[Donna]

What were they doing last night?


Yesterday afternoon Dori laid her third egg so this morning I looked through the video archives for footage showing all five: the two eggs laid by the previous resident (Tasha) and Dori’s three.  I looked especially for nighttime images because the eggs show up so well under infrared light.

What I found was a surprise.

Around 11:15pm last night, Dori was incubating the eggs when something flew by and caught her attention.  She got up and trotted to the left, out of camera range.  I could hear ee-chupping, then little eee sounds, then a distant wail.  Silence.  For more than ten minutes there no bird sounds except one or two distant wails.  No birds on camera.

After ten minutes Louie appeared, walked to the scrape and adjusted the eggs.  Male peregrines don’t usually incubate at night.  What was going on?

Louie spent about 5 minutes with the eggs, standing over them, peeping softly.  A peregrine wailed in the background.  Louie left the eggs and walked down the ramp where he paused to listen (pictured here, approx 11:39pm).  Then he was gone.

I wonder what happened.

We’ll never know.  The archives broke after that for the next two hours (they saved the same two seconds with a new time stamp) and when they resumed at 2:00am all was calm and Dori was incubating.

Another night in the life of peregrines.

p.s. I did find a photo of Dori with all 5 eggs.  See below.

[Donna]

Peregrine Falcon Chicks!
Dr. Todd Katzner, the National Aviary's Director of Conservation and Field Research, was lucky enough to be watching live video as the second and third eggs hatched yesterday within minutes. A fifth may hatch at any time.

He says both parents are feeding the chicks, which look like little fluff balls with beaks and droopy wings now but will grow quickly and resemble the adults in just 28 days. At that point, they will get bands and health checkups. They will stay near the nest even after they start flying and remain in the area until early fall. The adults stay year-round and defend their nest territory.


There are five eggs in a nest at the Gulf Tower. The female who laid the first two disappeared. Another female laid three of her own and is incubating all five. Katzner says it's possible, but would be surprising, if the first two hatch.

Live video of both nests is available, and highlights of the nesting season will be archived at aviary.org/falcon.

[Donna]

Today there was excitement at the Gulf Tower peregrine nest when two of the five eggs hatched and made the new resident female, Dori, a first-time mother.



There are three more eggs to go.  Will they all hatch?  We aren’t sure because two of the remaining eggs were laid weeks earlier by the previous female peregrine, Tasha.

[Donna]

Not a good shot but mom just caught breakfast and dad was watching over the nest.

[Donna]

The Gulf Tower peregrines have really surprised me.  With all the drama that occurred in late March and early April — when Tasha laid two eggs, then Dori took over the nest site and laid three more — I really expected the eggs would hatch days apart and that only Dori’s would be viable.

Instead, yesterday two more of the five eggs hatched, so that all four hatched within 48 hours.

There are now four peregrine chicks at Gulf Tower.

Here are some “babyâ€� pictures from today and yesterday.  My thanks go to Jennie Barker, Traci Darin and Marianne Atkinson for capturing most of these images.  (I captured the feeding this morning.)

I never thought Tasha's eggs would hatch after all the fighting and her off the eggs for so long..

[Donna]

Here's 2 pics from just a few minutes ago