Tarentum Bridge falcons a model of peregrine breeding success in Western Pa.
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It’s been a good year for the state-endangered peregrine falcon in Southwestern Pennsylvania, with more nesting sites and chicks across the region.
While there has been turbulence for the peregrines at the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning, with mates being ousted by stronger competitors and some falcons going missing, a steady and calm partnership at the Tarentum Bridge is producing lots of chicks and little drama.
“Tarentum has a good set of parents,” said Kate St. John of Oakland, the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s lead volunteer monitor for the peregrine falcon in the region.
Three young falcons at the Tarentum Bridge are expected to fledge, or be ready to fly from their nest, within the week. Four were reared there last year and four were raised there in both 2018 and 2019, according to St. John, who also writes the blog Outside My Window, about birds and nature.
That isn’t the case at all nesting sites.
“Depending on the strength of the old birds and the gumption of the young ones, you might not get a nest some years,” St. John said.
Across the region, the falcons nest most often under bridges. But bridges can pose nesting problems, as was the case at the Tarentum Bridge years ago when the birds were breeding with spotty success in a cramped space in the superstructure of the bridge.
In 2015, the commission installed a special peregrine nest box on one of the bridge’s piers.
This year, photographer Dave Brooke of Harrison said he first saw tiny heads pop out of the nest box May 8. The nest box is on the second pier from the New Kensington side of the bridge. Brooke, one of several watchers for the commission, uses a 60-power spotting scope to check in on the birds.
“It’s always interesting to watch the process of birds nesting and raising young,” Brooke said. “The Tarentum peregrine falcons are a bit more unusual to watch because they weren’t always successful.”
It will be a great time for people to view some fancy flying by the parent birds at the Tarentum Bridge from now through the weekend, according to St. John.
“The kids will be begging for food, and the parents will be looking for food,” St. John said, adding the young birds will likely be walking and hanging out on the bridge pier.
If observers’ timing is right, they can watch a prey exchange between the parent peregrines. The male peregrine will carry prey in his talons while the female flies to him and flips upside down in mid-air to grab the prey to take to the young birds. The aerial feat is performed in front of the young birds as a teaching moment, St. John added.
Peregrine falcons — which have been clocked at more than 200 mph in dives — are the fastest animals on earth.
“Now is the time to see the Tarentum peregrines, because once the young birds fly, it will be hard to find them,” St. John said.
To view the Tarentum peregrines, visit the public boat launch next to the bridge along First Avenue in Tarentum.
In addition to the Tarentum Bridge, young falcons have been confirmed at five other sites across the region, including Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning, Downtown Pittsburgh; the Westinghouse Bridge in East Pittsburgh; and the Monaca railroad bridge in Beaver County, St. John said.
Nesting sites pending verification of young include the Graff (Kittanning) Bridge on Route 422 spanning the Allegheny River in Armstrong County’s Manor Township; the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge; the Neville Island Bridge; the McKees Rocks Bridge; and a new site, the Speers railroad bridge in Washington County.
To learn more about peregrine falcons in the state, visit the commission’s website.