Beauty’s ‘Baby’ Pictures & Nest Box Intelligence
Photos courtesy of Kate St. John & Karen Lang at the Univ. of Pittsburgh
Kate St. John and Karen Lang served as Peregrine watchers at the University of Pittsburgh in 2007, the year that 81/V, aka Beauty, hatched and fledged. They had a webcam installed at the Cathedral of Learning (what a great name!), and they sent us some pictures of Beauty and her siblings along with their parents, Dorothy and Erie. We’ve compiled them into the slideshow you’re seeing above. It’s not possible to tell from the pictures which of the eyases is Beauty, but we thought you’d enjoy this look into her early life.
Over in Rochester, she and Archer are continuing the daily routine of a mated pair of Peregrines. Watchers report occasional coming and going from the ledge on the Midtown Plaza Tower at a particular location near the southeast corner where we believe a scrape may be located. There is not a lot of activity from the pair, though another mating episode was witnessed around 8:00PM a couple of days ago. This diminution of activity might indicate that egg laying has concluded and that brooding has begun, but it’s impossible to say for sure.
We say might, becuase we don’t have a way to directly observe the suspected scrape. We’re working on that though. We’ve presented a plan to the DEC for installing a camera above the nest location. We believe we can do this with little or no disturbance to the falcons, a primary consideration if indeed the falcons are sitting on eggs. This is all very preliminary though. In addition to the issues above we’d be working in a building that’s largely decommissioned. Cameras don’t work without power and network or internet connectivity, and we have to determine if those resources exist at the Midtown location, and whether we could use them if they do. We’ll post updates when we receive useful information to pass along.
In the meantime we’ll have to depend on our volunteer watchers for information about what’s happening at Midtown. As we receive reports from our watchers we’ll post them over at our FalconWatch Blog, so be sure to check over there from time to time!
April 30th, 2009 at 2:01 PM
I’ve been watching the Pittsburg nests on their 2 webcams and it’s giving me my “Falcon Fix!”. Thanks for the slideshow of Beauty!
April 30th, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to present us with this slide show, Jess.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:21 PM
Unfortunately the comments section on the FalconWatch Blog is still cut off, so I express my appreciation to Carla P for her two reports here.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Jess – While browsing the Chicago sites I saw that there is a falcon with a partial ID (black over green – 5/???) at the Loyola Campus site. Just wondering if it could possibly be Grissom from the 2004 brood.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:16 PM
Thanks, Jess, for making this slide show and for looking into the possibility of a nest cam at Midtown. All the work that you and the team do is much appreciated.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Thanks to all involved for the slide show. Great job.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:21 PM
You guys are the greatest! Thanks for everything!
April 30th, 2009 at 6:43 PM
Wow, you Rochester Falconcam folks are terrific! Please keep us posted as to financial needs to make this new cam a reality.
April 30th, 2009 at 7:02 PM
Thank you for all your efforts, it’s great to see Beauty and her siblings! Looking forward to seeing the new offspring of Beauty and Archer!
April 30th, 2009 at 7:49 PM
Thanks for sharing this interesting news. Here’s a link to a fairly recent article about maintaining Midtown, including utilities – but only until July, it seems.
http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/news/articles/2009/02/MIDTOWN-Council-members-question/
April 30th, 2009 at 8:12 PM
Thanks for the info. I also look at the Buffalo Cam, The Hartford cam, and the Eagle cam. http://www.wvec.com/cams/eagle.html
April 30th, 2009 at 9:10 PM
I think a lot of us probably watched “Beauty” on that cam back in 2007. Small world. Great slide show jess….BIG thanks.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:11 PM
Awww Beauty 🙂 and Archer with make Mariah beautiful Great Grand Eyasses.
April 30th, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Thanks for slideshow and info. Best of luck getting a cam set up. I’d be great to be able to watch Rochester falcons again.
Any recent word on Mariah?
April 30th, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Beauty-ful sldeshow, Jess. Thanks.
Would solar be a viable power option for the cam? Montezuma’s Osprey cam has been solar powered for years.
http://newyorkwild.org/osprey/osprey.htm
May 1st, 2009 at 1:34 AM
Thanks so much for the slide show..its great.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:51 AM
Thank you for the update, and the slideshow!
May 1st, 2009 at 1:40 PM
I’m longing for an update on Mariah. Is there a possibility that she could be fitted with a transmitter if she is released into the wild again? I, for one, would certainly contribute towards the cost for a project like that.
I am amazed at how “hooked” I am on the Rochester peregrines – been watching for years. I think we would feel more connected if you could actually get a camera on the nest site.
May 1st, 2009 at 1:42 PM
I meant to say I thought we would feel more connected to Archer and Beauty if we could watch their nest.
May 1st, 2009 at 8:56 PM
Thanks for posting the link to the Falcon Watchblog again. I used to see it over in the column on the right but it disappeared.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:50 PM
I see eyeasses (sp?) over at the Hartford site!
http://falconcam.travelers.com/falcam2.html
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:43 AM
I looked at the site again.It is truly beautiful..thank you Jess.
May 2nd, 2009 at 12:54 AM
On Imprints, I noticed the food was gone..did anyone take it, or was their a fledge in there to get it?
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:47 PM
Rhea Mae and Tiago’s first hatch this morning! WooHoo!
May 2nd, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Kathy V – Are you asking about the quail that had been left at the nest box on the Powers Bldg? If so, Crows finally found the Quail and took it away. At least it didn’t go to waste.
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:38 PM
Carol P – Great news about Rhea Mae. Any news on Linn?
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 PM
No further news on Linn, I’m afraid. But Linda Woods (Rhea Mae’s Watcher) reports that a 2nd hatch is on it’s way and there are pips in the remaining 2 eggs. 🙂
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 AM
Rhea Mae and Tiago..way to go.
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 AM
I want to thank Joyce for her FalconWatch report with pictures.
May 3rd, 2009 at 1:26 AM
I too am hooked on the falcon cam, its not the same with the way things turned out this season.Guess things can’t or don’t always stay the same, but I always looked forward to watching the babies being born and growing, mom and dad coming and going.Just as long as Mariah gets better, and I pray that Kaver is well too, just off somewhere with a new family.Who knows, maybe someone will spot him somewhere and let us know. Fingers crossed.
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:05 PM
Kathy V. if someone found the tiercel we call Kaver, there is no way to know it is he, so there would be no reporting back. He is unbanded and thus undistinguishable from all other unbanded male falcons in the wild (or in captivity for that matter). We will never know what happened to Kaver even as we do not know the fate of most wild birds (including ones that have had a brush with humans in the form of banders).