Resident falcons defend their Cathedral nest

Dorothy and Erie may have found prime real estate at Pitt, but on March 18, Erie had to… Dorothy and Erie may have found prime real estate at Pitt, but on March 18, Erie had to fight beak-and-claw to keep it.

The two peregrine falcons have been nesting on the 40th floor of the Cathedral of Learning since 2002, but their five-year reign was threatened when an intruder fought the male falcon, Erie, and tried to overtake their nest.

During the 20-minute fight, Erie and the intruding male falcon lunged at each other, aiming for the other’s head and neck. All the while, Dorothy remained very close to the pair, watching as they rolled off the ledge of the Cathedral in a ball of blood and feathers.

The battle was captured by a camera that monitors the falcon’s nest. Kate St. John, a Western Pennsylvania Conservancy volunteer, observes the falcons through the Conservancy’s Web site and began capturing images once she realized a fight was underway.

This rare footage of two fighting male falcons could be helpful in learning key facts about peregrine falcon behavior, according to Anthony Bledsoe, a biology professor at Pitt who also watches the falcons.

“As far as I know, these images are unique for peregrine falcons,” he said.

The last captured image shows Dorothy looking to the sky as the two male falcons flew away.

By the time Bledsoe learned of the fight, all three falcons had abandoned the nest. It was about 15 minutes before a male falcon reappeared. The returning male is believed to be Erie based on his behavior toward Dorothy.

St. John said that a new male falcon would have to get used to her as well as the building. Shortly after the fight, the pair didn’t display new courtship behavior and the male falcon went to one of his many nooks on the Cathedral where he stores dead pigeons. This, she explained, is a telltale sign that Erie won the fight.

“Erie would have chased the intruder as far as necessary,” she said.

St. John said falcons are not mate-specific. Erie flew to Pittsburgh from Columbus, Ohio; Dorothy from Milwaukee. She figured they must have both been drawn to the Cathedral because peregrines traditionally nest on high cliffs.

An avid bird-watcher, St. John saw them circling around the Cathedral as if they wanted to nest. Through a joint effort between the Conservancy, the Cathedral of Learning’s building manager and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, a nest box was provided for the falcons in 2002.

Like traditional peregrine nests, Dorothy and Erie’s nest box contains gravel, in which peregrines make depressions to cradle their eggs. It cannot be reached from inside the building, which protects the falcons from curious and foolhardy onlookers. However, Bledsoe learned firsthand about the territorial nature of peregrines.

Bledsoe’s role was to fend off Dorothy and Erie with what he describes as a broom and a dust mop while workers were installing the Web camera mount in 2003.

“Erie had an attack pattern,” Bledsoe explained, describing how Erie would hover over the four-and-a-half-foot stone parapet that surrounds to the 40th floor ledge and then dive at him. Then, as if in a joint-attack effort, Dorothy would come up from below the parapet.

“So, I’m watching Erie and trying to fend off Dorothy,” Bledsoe said, mimicking his frantic arm movements on that day. Because of this situation, they have tried to avoid disturbing the falcons since then.

Bledsoe has been a bird enthusiast since the summer after his ninth grade year in high school when he spotted a black and white warbler creeping head-down on the trunk of a tree while he was observing a robin’s nest through binoculars.

“I was hooked. It was so beautiful and animate,” he said. He decided to spend the rest of his life studying birds, and remains both fascinated and mystified by the peregrines at Pitt.

Although peregrine falcons eat an average of one pigeon every day and a half, the carcasses of blue-winged teal, downy woodpeckers and yellow-billed cuckoos have also been found – the latter being highly unusual since the birds do not breed nearby.

The newest images are available on the link to the Web camera, at www.paconserve.org/rc/pittvideo.html, and show the first of four eggs Dorothy is expected to lay this year. The eggs usually hatch in June.

St. John said that the fight has made her a little more interested in this year’s nesting season.

“There are many hours of boredom punctuated by moments of great excitement,” she laughed, describing the dedication she’s had for bird-watching since she was 12. “They’re what I care about here. It’s partly that I know these two, it’s hard to give up.”

As one of the two peregrine nesting pairs in Pittsburgh, the other one perching at the top of the Gulf building Downtown, Dorothy and Erie have become publicized symbols of nature’s power in a little more than a week’s time.

St. John described a day when she saw the pair cut a single pigeon out of a flock and catch it together. Even red tail hawks, which are bigger than peregrine falcons, can easily be out-maneuvered by the agile birds and seem to fly a little lower when around the Cathedral.

“They’re the top of the food chain,” St. John said. “For the University to have something as cool as the peregrine on its tallest academic building is, in a way, setting an example for the rest of the world saying, ‘Look, these things are important.'”