5.27.99. G.P. and Mickee seem to spend even more time on the bridge these days. This afternoon, for instance, Mickee appeared from out of the top of the east counterweight and sat in view for a while. Then G.P. flew from his perch at the west end of the bridge and landed two feet away from Mickee. They bowed to each other, vocalized, and hopped together down into the top of the counterweight. After three to four minutes, G.P. flew out and back to the west end of the bridge. Mickee did not reappear during the next ten minutes that I watched.
5.24.99. It's still hard to tell what G.P. and Mickee, the Tacoma peregrines, are up to. They haven't shown much interest in the nest boxes on the Key Bank Building and the Wells Fargo Building. And they do hop in and out of the east counterweight a lot. Certainly, they cache food in there. Are they doing anything else in there? I don't know yet.
Otherwise, they are still copulating and otherwise paying attention to each other.
At noon today, G.P. flew up to the east counterweight of the Murray Morgan Bridge (the official name of the 11th Street Bridge--I could have named G.P. "Murray") with a fresh pigeon. He called out as he plucked it for a minute or two, then carried it into the air as he flew around the bridge's west end. From somewhere in the tangle of beams at the west end, Mickee flew out and took the pigeon from G.P. Then they both retired to the top of the east counterweight. He hopped down inside, while she working on butchering the pigeon carcass. At last she hopped down inside too.
Neither of them appeared for the next few minutes before I had to get back to my desk.
5.12.99. At noon, Mickee, clutching a pigeon or starling carcass, flew from a corner of the Key Bank Building straight for the nest box on the south side of that building. She hopped into the box, cached the carcass, and then walked around the wooden edge of the box, seeming to inspect the surroundings. Then she flew to the 11th Street Bridge.
This was the first time I've seen her on the Key Bank nest box. There is still no sign that she or G.P. has inspected the Wells Fargo Building nest box.
The falcons don't seem to be fazed by the bridge climber who had to be coaxed down by police and firefighters Monday afternoon.
5.5.99. The Tacoma peregrines, G.P. and Mickee, are continuing their amorous ways, though it is still hard to tell what may come of it.
During my afternoon break at 2:30 p.m., G.P. flew from the east counterweight straight to Mickee on a corner of the Washington Building. They copulated.
Earlier this morning, G.P. flew up to the east counterweight and landed a foot or two away from where Mickee was perching. With much vocalizing, she hopped down into the top of the counterweight, and he followed. When I had to return to work a few minutes later, they were still out of sight inside the counterweight.
I'm still checking every day for signs that they have been on the Wells Fargo nest box, but so far I haven't seen any signs that they've been there.
It's been 15 days since I first saw them actually copulate.
4.29.99. Things are pretty much as they've been with The Guy Peregrine and Mickee the Peregrine. They are still mating regularly--on the west end of the 11th Street Bridge at 9:15 a.m. today and at 2:30 p.m. yesterday. And they are spending a lot of time perching on the east counterweight and on the rest of the bridge.
4.21.99. It's been about 10 days since Mickee, the immature female peregrine, arrived in Tacoma and took up with The Guy Peregrine. Are they're getting along?
During my lunch break today and again during my 2:30 afternoon break, they mated on a corner of the Key Bank Building, where she has been perching much of the day.
They may have copulated more than once during the last week. But I can't be sure. Several times last week, G.P. and Mickee hopped down out of sight into the east counterweight of the 11th Street Bridge and vocalized enthusiatically for a short time till he flew out. Was it falcon whoopee or not?
Today, though, they've ceratinly gotten into the spirit of the breeding season.
They've also just started spending more time during the day on the downtown buildings--mostly the Wells Fargo Building and the Key Bank Building. Mickee (so named for the first present she accepted from G.P.--a Mickey Rodent) has pretty much confined her perching to the bridge up until now. I hope that they'll investigate the new nest box on the Wells Fargo Building.
4.13.99. March the Peregrine has left town, and a stubborn new female has caught The Guy Peregrine's attention.
March, the mature female who had mated with G.P., was absent over the weekend. On Monday, an immature new female arrived on the 11th Street Bridge and stubbornly refused to leave.
At noon on Monday, G.P. tried several times to evict the brown newcomer. Once he chased her out of the east counterweight and harassed her (carefully) off to the north. But she came back, and he rested for a while on the bridge. Then he flew off toward the town buildings, and when she too slipped off the bridge to follow or to hunt, he dived on her till she ascended and soared in circles a little off to the north, and he returned once more to the bridge. But in a short while, so did she.
Later yesterday afternoon, she was again sitting on the west end of the 1th Street Bridge. When she launched herself eastward, G.P. came out of nowhere and dived on her. This time, though, I not so sure whether he was driving her off or flirting with her. In any case, she again returned to the bridge.
Today, she was still resting on the bridge, and G.P.'s approach to her had changed. In mid-afternoon, he walked toward her on the east counterweight holding in his beak what looked like a large ball of lint. Except that the gray lintball had two small round ears.
She hopped down out of sight into the counterweight, and he, offering the eared lintball, hopped down after her. After a moment of his e-chups and her squeals, he appeared again and flew to the west end of the bridge. Shortly after, she hopped into sight with the gray fuzzy meal in her beak and settled down to dining on it.
G.P. has apparently picked up the knack of plucking fat rodents from the ground, and his companions seem to have a taste for rodent al fresco.
4.11.99. The Guy Peregrine sat on the 11th Street Bridge's east counterweight for an hour today while I watched. He just sat there. He was still just sitting there when I left. I didn't see G.P.'s partner March today.
In the past week, they have hopped in and out of the top of the east counterweight many times a day. I haven't seen any signs that they've checked out the new nest box on the Wells Fargo Building this week. I don't recall seeing them on any of the downtown buildings during the week.
4.6.99. Both peregrines stayed around the 11th Street Bridge today. They don't seem much bothered by the Department of Transportation workers repairing the west end of the drawbridge structure.
They repeatedly hopped in and out of the east counterweight today.
Roger Orness, who reports that he watched them for five hours last Sunday 4/4/99, says that they copulated two or perhaps even three times.
Roger also reports that the Tacoma falcons may even have an appetite for an occasional rodent. He watched the Guy Peregrine stoop down out of sight and waited for G.P. to come back into view clutching a pugeon.
But instead G.P. flew up "with what appeared to be a rodent with a long tail, sporting no wings," Roger said.
After the G.P. had disappeared for a little while he joined March the Peregrine, the new female, on the bridge tower and "presented her a similar headless prey item that required no plucking." They copulated. Then she turned to dine on the meal G.P. had presented her.
"The prey seemed very tough and stringy," Roger noted. "I'm thinking it was the same possible warf rat that he had previously caught."
4.2.99. The Tacoma peregrines' love lives have been confusing for the past couple of weeks. But just this morning I saw a hopeful sign.
Sash, the female who had shown up here on January 25, disappeared almost three weeks ago on March 15. Sash never seemed receptive to mating.
A few days later, on March 18, a new fully adult female arrived (she is not banded) and started keeping company with the male. Then for most of this week I could not find her--until day. (I assume that today's adult female is the same one.)
This morning I watched the female take off from the bridge to chase off a third peregrine that was flying out over the Tacoma tideflats. The male trailed after. (The intruder was far enough off that I couldn't tell from its size whether it was male or female.)
Shortly after the chase while the female was resting on the Washington Building, the male flew to her, she leaned forward, and they copulated--apparently satisfactorily.
That's the first copulation I've seen this spring, and I'll take it as a sign of hope.
3.3.99. Today, new falcon nest box was installed in a 23rd-floor window of the Wells Fargo Building, and falcon fans are crossing their fingers that this year the resident male--known simply as "he"--and Sash, the female, will use the box to produce youngsters this year.
The gravel-filled box on the north side of the building replaces a previous box removed a couple of years ago after the male couldn't find a suitable female to share it with him. The new box was constructed and installed with the help of the Falcon Research Group.
While the winds howled this stormy day, both Sash and he sheltered under the eaves of the Perkins Building nearby.
2.25.99. During the noon hour today, the two Tacoma peregrines--Sash and the resident male--both disappeared into the top of the 11th Street Bridge's eastern counterweight. This is the first time I've seen them in it together. (But, of course, the weather has been so crummy that I haven't spent a whole lot of time in the gales outside.) This may signal that they are considering it as a nesting place.
After they hopped out and back into sight, Sash perched on the Wells Fargo Building, while he flew circles around her and the building.
Then she shot off toward the old Schoenfeld's Furniture Building (now nearly renovated) and roused an immature female peregrine who had been lurking over there somewhere. Together, Sash and he chased the young female around the bridge, Sash grappling fiercely with her and almost falling to the street. He dived on the young intruder. At last Sash and he together chased the youngster off to the east across the tideflats.
Just yesterday, at noon Wednesday, Sash and he had also chased off an intruding female peregrine.
1.12.99. At high noon today, an immature male peregrine flew around the 11th Street Bridge, presuming on the two resting Tacoma peregrines.
The resident male roused and chased off the youngster amid much vocal to-do, but the persistent young peregrine returned and circled around. This time both the resident male and Sash, the new female, drove off the intruder; and when they came back once more to the bridge, the young male perched across the way on top of the Key Bank Building.In a few moments, while the resident male stayed on the bridge, Sash set off after the youngster and persuaded him to leave for other parts. In all the fuss and feathers and vocal racket and chasing, none of the peregrines actually came very close to engaging deadly talons with each other, as far as I could see.
The peregrine activity is picking up here in Tacoma, eh.
1.11.99. Little more than a week after the resident female Tacoma peregrine died, a new female has shown up today--a dark juvenile female. This afternoon she was eating at the east end of the 11th Street Bridge, while the resident male perched quietly at the west end. I haven't seen them interact yet.
A visiting falcon watcher from Alaska found her body on a landing of stairs leading down from the bridge to Dock Street below, according to a USGS colleague of mine who saw the body. My colleague said that her breast was split wide open, her head was gashed, and her wings were broken.
Today at the place where she died, I found a few clumps of breast feathers near the wires running upward from a power pole along Dock Street to the bridge control house.
She had evidently chased pigeons fleeing under the bridge, where they roost, and had hurled at falcon speed into the wires.
When she arrived last mid-April as a first-year bird, the resident male had already courted a succession of females over several years, and all of them had moved on. But she and he hit it off, and she has stayed.
In past few weeks, she and he have hunted together and have even dined together only a few inches apart. In a few more weeks, they would have started earnest courting. This spring they may well have produced youngsters.
Today,the male peregrine perched alone on the bridge.
6.28.98. After the bridge went up and down twice last Monday (6/22), I looked to see how soon they would return to it. But every time I checked up on them during the week, they were not on the bridge. They clung to the heights of the Wells Fargo Building and the Washington Building. They lounged on the ledges of the Key Bank Building and the old Weyerhaeuser Building. They shaded themselves under the eaves of the Perkins Building. But I didn't see them on the bridge until today. During the day, each of them stayed a while in the tangle of girders and pipes that stretch from one end of the bridge to the other.
They don't spend much time closely together these days, but they do seem to keep in regular touch, very often perching within sight of each other. And she often calls, in a thin ascending whine that sounds a little plaintive, maybe like a begging call. She did a lot of that today. In fact, when I found her on the bridge this morning, she was whining. And I supposed that he was nearby. But then she shot off toward over the Perkins Building and up toward a ledge of the Key Bank Building, where she had seen him appear. (I hadn't seen him show up there.) He bestirred himself and flew off. She stayed. I wonder what she had to communicate to him.
6.22.98. They had a busy day. At 9:00 a.m., coming from the Wells Fargo Building, she circled the east end of the 11th Street Bridge, provoking his vocalizing from somewhere inside the east counterweight. She flew off and five minutes later came back and disappeared into the top of the counterweight, with much squealing.
Where did he come from? He circled the counterweight (did he come from inside?) and landed on the edge. He stayed there. She was silent inside. I had to go back to work.
At noon, she finished her lunch on a north ledge of the Key Bank Building and flapped to the east counterweight, again and again squealing a thin ascending squeal or whine. She dropped into the counterweight and out of sight. From somewhere on the bridge, he came and landed next to her as she popped back up onto the counterweight ledge. He bowed to her and e-chupped. She squealed. Her huge yellow feet clutching some small gray something, she flew to the other end of the bridge. He followed. She still squealed. At last she once again flew back to the east end of the bridge next to the counterweight. He stayed. I had to return inside to work.
The bridge went up at 2:15 p.m., and the counterweights came down. Both he and she came out of I-don't-know-where and circled the lowering counterweight. Then she disappeared, and he rode the counterweight partway down till he departed for a nearby perch on the old Weyerhaeuser Building. (I tried to climb a bridge ladder high enough to peek down inside the top of the counterweight, but I couldn't safely get high enough in time.)
The counterweights went back up. Then a few minutes later, they came down again and went up again. All the while, he watched from the Weyerhaeuser Building. I couldn't find her. And I had to return to work.
6.15.98. Today, she was clinging to the east side of the Key Bank Buillding, the Wells Fargo Building, and the Washington Building through the day. I didn't see him today. And such has been the pattern recently, at least in my somewhat curtailed looking in on them. I have not figured out what he is up to these days. In any case, I hope to put up some new photos of them soon.
6.9.98. Now she has a new favorite perch--on the east face of the old Weyerhaeuser Building (at the northwest end of the 11th Street Bridge). She was there when I checked her at 9:00 a.m., at noon, and at 2:15 p.m.--having moved only a few feet each time.
He, on the other hand, is harder to figure out. At 8:45 a.m., he jumped down into the east counterweight of the bridge, stayed for 5 or 6 minutes, then hopped up onto the edge back in sight. A few minutes later he was out of sight again. Whether he flew off or jumped down inside again, I don't know. At noon, he again emerged from inside the counterweight, then flew to the west end of the bridge. He was still perching there when I had to go back to work. At 2:15 p.m., he was huddled under the eaves of the east side of the old Perkins Building (at the southwest end of the bridge). He used to hang out here last year, but this is the first time I've seen him here in many months. At the same time, she was not far away on the Weyerhaeuser Building.
I'm still curious about their interest in the east counterweight.
6.8.98. She was on the east side of the old Weyerhaeuser building when I checked at 9:00 a.m., and she was still there at noon. By 2:15 p.m., she had moved to the upper east side of the Washington Building. I didn't see him at all today.
6.4.98. They've changed their daily routines. I don't find her on the Key Bank Building these days. She's usually on the bridge or sometimes clutching an upper ledge of the Washington Building. He's on the bridge or out of sight or here or there. I've seen them together less often.
I've got to take a scope to the roof of my building and peer down inside the tops of the counterweights.
6.2.98. I don't know if I'd call it cooperative hunting. As I checked for them at 9:00 a.m., she shot off the 11th Street Bridge toward a pigeon over my head, just missing the twisting pigeon and seeming to slack off the chase. Then the male, who must have been trailing behind and under her, rose up and snagged the pigeon.
He lugged it to the bridge and tore into it, while she waited on a perch above him. Was she going to get a share? I had to end my break and go back inside to work. I walked a couple of blocks back to my building and looked back. I think--I'm not sure--that he was gone and she was feeding on the fresh pigeon.
5.27.98. After most of a soggy day, I went looking for the birds at 2:15 p.m. She was clinging to the east side of the Wells Fargo Building, and then she shot off toward the east end of the 11th Street Bridge. She flushed him from somewhere on the east end, and both of them flew to the west counterweight and jumped into the topand out of sight. They made lots of noise.
She hopped into sight again and headed for the east counterweight. He followed. They leap down into the middle and out of sight. Again, they made lots of noise. What's going on in those feathered heads behind those dark falcon eyes?
5.26.98. They've altered their pattern today. At 9:00 a.m., I couldn't find them anywhere until I heard chittering from the WEST counterweight of the the 11th Street Bridge. She appeared on the top of the counterweight; then he popped up. Then they both jumped down into the depression and out of sight. They chittered energetically--they're either eating or mating. She leaped up, back into sight, and he stayed below, still making noises.
At noon, they mated on the west end of the bridge. Afterwards, he flew straight to the east counterweight. Later, at 2:15, she appeared out of the east counterweight and flew to the west end near him. She had lost a left inner tail feather today, and I've seen several of her smaller feathers on the streets lately.
I didn't see either of them away from the bridge today.
5.25.98. At 1:00 p.m. she was sitting at her usual spot on the east counterweight of the 11th Street Bridge, where she spent considerable time yesterday. She almost always perches in the center near the large tuft of grass. At 3:30 p.m. she was on the east face of the Washington Building, and he was hanging on to the northeast corner ledge of the Key Bank Building. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary in the little time that I watched today.
5.23.98. For a while in the early afternoon, I couldn't find him or her. Then she popped her head up from inside the top of the east counterweight on the 11th Street Bridge. Within a couple of minutes, he appeared from I-don't-know-where, landed near her, bowed to her, and hopped into the counterweight. In a minute or two after they dropped out of sight into the counterweight, he flew out and over to the west end of the bridge. She stayed out of sight. (12:35-1:00p.m.).
Later I found her on the old Weyerhaeuser Building and him on the east counterweight. He flew to her and landed 4 feet from her. A crow lumbered below them. Crows ignore the peregrines, and the peregrines ignore the crows. But this time he shot off after the crow and chased it around the building. It being routed, he circled--almost as if in triumph in front of her--the buildings another time and then made directly for her. They mated. Yep. (2:00-2:20 p.m.)
5.22.98. When I first checked, she was perched just a few feet away from the nest box on the Key Bank Building, and a couple of new pigeon feathers were left in the box (7:45 a.m.). She spent most of the rest of the day over on the east side of the Washington Building. I did not see him today.
5.21.98. The Seattle peregrines have nestlings. The Portland peregrines have nestlings. The Tacoma peregrines haven't even laid eggs yet. What's more--she apparently hasn't been in the mood in the last few days. But this morning, they mated high up on the east side of the Wells Fargo Building. So maybe they're not though for the season yet.
5.20.98. They spent most of the day loafing on the 11th Street Bridge. In the morning, when they were both on the west counterweight, she took off, clutching a large remnant of pigeon, flew several times around and among the Wells Fargo Building, the Key Bank Building, the Perkins Building, and others, as if she couldn't make up her mind where to land with that cumbersome load of brunch. It was odd. And I never did see where she ended up.
At noon, she was on the east counterweight and was still there when I checked on her again at 2:30 p.m. He shifted positions several times during the day, but he stuck around the bridge too.
I get the feeling that she isn't too keen on mating much more this season, though she is still eating--uh--ravenously.
At least a half dozen co-workers and other denizens of my building, the Wells Fargo Building, told me that they had stepped over a belly-up and gutted pigeon carcass as they came in to work this morning.
5/19/98. She had more get-up-and-go today, commuting several times back and forth between the Key Bank Building and the 11th Street Bridge and hunting a couple of times. In the afternoon, she stooped on a dark pigeon with fluttering white primaries, hitting it once, then twice, knocking off a flurry of feathers, leaving it suspended in the air motionless. Then for a third time she hit it, sending it downward and out of sight as she followed.
Though he was most mostly elsewhere today, at noon he landed beside her on the Key Bank Building, and they bowed to each other and vocalized. Then he flew off on a hunt. I haven't seen them mate successfully for several days. Over the past weekend, I saw several apparently failed copulation attempts, and Ruth Taylor informs me that last Sunday, she also saw several unsuccessful attempts. A week ago, they never failed. On the other hand, Ruth Taylor reports that once again they chased off an intrusive immature Bald Eagle together, she leading the charge.
5/18/98. I first caught sight of her this morning when she popped her head up from inside the depression on top of the east counterweight on the 11th Street Bridge. What was she doing down in there--laying an egg? snacking on cached prey?
Michelle Tirhi, the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife's urban biologist for this region, looked down at the counterweight's depression last fall and found lots of soil, silt, gravel, and other detritus of 70 years in it, enough to support some flourishing vegetation. It could make a nesting place, even though the counterweights go down and up again when the bridge infrequently opens.
(Last year while the male and a previous female were on the bridge, the counterweights lowered and then rose again. For the whole twenty minutes, the female circled the bridge and then settled again when the span and the counterweights were back in place. Not waiting for the whole procedure to come to a halt, the male jumped back on the east counterweight as it was rising and rode it calmly to the top.)
Today, though, the female returned to the Key Bank Building and spent much of the rest of the day there. The male was out and about much of the day.
5.17.98. She didn't seem to have much oomph today. While he flew here and there around her, she pretty much stayed put on the Wells Fargo Building. In the morning, he tried (I think) to mate, but she wasn't in the mood. Later in the afternoon, I found them close together on the same Wells Fargo window ledge, bowing toward each other. But then he went off hunting and caught and cached something on the 11th Street Bridge before he returned to the Key Bank Building. She just stayed on the Wells Fargo Building.
5.16.98. It didn't seem an easy afternoon's hunting for him. As she perched and preened on a Key Bank ledge directly below the nest box, he came streaking by her, slaloming between buildings after a pigeon. She started to follow the chase, then retired to the Washington Building, where she still perched an hour and a half later when I left. Meanwhile, returning after a few minutes from his first hunt, empty footed, he brushed by her and set out again, weaving between buildings after another pigeon.
He's used this ambush technique to good advantage recently. From a high perch, he spots a pigeon over the top of a lower building; then he drops low, putting the lower building between him and pigeon. He turns on the jets, rounds the corner of the low building and--voila!--pigeon surprised.
But today he came back from his second hunt empty-taloned again. He again brushed by her and this time perched nearby for a while. After a 30-minute rest, he set out again. And she waited.
5.15.98. In the afternoon, he flew to the Washington Building's east side and delivered a morsel of something directly to her feet. While he stood aside, she airlifted the unidentifiable appetizer over to her ledge on the Key Bank Building, plucked off a few small feathers, and gulped whatever it was. He flew off to the 11th Street Bridge; she followed a couple of minutes later. Another spring rain shower streaked my eyeglasses. My 2:15 p.m. work break was over. I went back inside to my desk.
5.14.98. Today was another gray, windy, and soggy one; and I spent a good part of it in meetings. The peregrines spent a good part of it clinging to the dry sides of the Wells Fargo Building and the Washington Building.
Who knows yet if the female can produce eggs this first season? But she sure is gobbling pigeons as though she were expecting. And the male has apparently still been bringing one after another. She has not, as far as I know, asked for pickled pigeon's feet.
5.13.98. It was a dark and soggy day. I mostly stayed out of it, and apparently so did the falcons. In the afternoon, I found the male clinging to a 23rd floor casement on east side of the Wells Fargo Building, his head tucked under his wing. The female spent most of the day under the top-level overhang of the Washington Building's east side, which she favors for getting out of the drizzle.
The Tacoma falcons are easy to get a good look at. In Seattle, peregrines Stewart and Bell nest 56 stories off the ground. The Tacoma falcons live most of their days much closer to the pavement. The top floor of the Wells Fargo Building is only half the height of the Seattle falcons' nest. Tacoma's 11th Street Bridge, built 70 years ago, is not particularly high. (What I'm really saying is that I haven't measured it yet.) Tacoma's Key Bank Building is only 17 floors high; the falcons' trysting place is on a 15th-story ledge, and there's a nest box on the south side, where the birds could look down only 17 stories.
5.12.98. The pair is still amorous. At noon, they rendezvoused and mated at the usual place on the northeast corner of the Key Bank Building. The female, looking a bit frumpy, has lost the second or third primary on her left wing.
5.11.98. The pair mated sometime before 9:00 a.m. at their usual place on the northeast corner ledge of the Key Bank Building, according to a man who often watches the birds from his eleventh-floor office in the Wells Fargo Building. For much of the rest of the day, the male was out of sight, and the female stayed around the Key Bank Building.
5.10.98. Afternoon. Both falcons were circling north of the 11th Street Bridge, so they are not incubating if, by tiny chance, they have laid eggs in some secret place.
5.9.98. Afternoon. The falcons are eating well together. Shortly after they'd finished dining on a pigeon on a ledge of the Key Bank Building, the male shot off and snagged another pigeon, which he cached on the 11th Street Bridge.
Though the female spends most of her idle time on the north and east ledges of the Key Bank Building, there's still no strong indication that she's going to use the nest box on the southside ledge. Today, the male lured her over to the bridge for a while, and each of them, alternately, hopped down into the depression at the top of the bridge's east counterweight. The male may persuade the female to lay eggs on this counterweight.
When an immature Bald Eagle, talons lowered, menaced the two peregrines on the bridge, they teamed up to drive the sorry eagle off to the south. Afterwards, they joined each other side by side on the Washington Building's east side.
Bud Anderson and seven members of his raptor class watched for an hour and a half as the falcons put on a great show.
5.8.98. Afternoon. Just after the two peregrines had finished a pigeon on the north ledge of the Key Bank Building, the male hurtled off and snagged another pigeon. He dragged it to the 11th Street Bridge, the female flapping behind him. He played keep away with her and finally seemed to cache the kill. The birds seem to be killing more often than usual, almost exclusively pigeons. I've found nothing but pigeon remains for weeks now.
5.7.98. The News Tribune (Tacoma) publishes an update story by Sandi Doughton--"Peregrine pair may make home in Tacoma."
5.6.98. At 7:15 a.m. the female is on the nest box on the south side of the Key Bank Building, plucking a pigeon. This is the first time I've seen her on the nest box.
5.4.98. Afternoon. On the northeast ledge of the Key Bank Building, the pair mated again.
4.30.98. The News Tribune (Tacoma) runs Sandi Doughton's story "Love-starved falcon all a-flutter: Lonely, local peregrine successfully courts a mate - now if she'll only stay."
4.29.98. Afternoon. The falcons mate again on the northeast corner of the Key Bank Building while Fred Joe, the News Tribune photographer, fidgets with his camera gear.
4.27.98. Morning. For the first time I witnessed the two peregrines mating. They went at it enthusiastically on the northeast ledge of the Key bank Building.
4.18.98. A new female has shown up on the Wells Fargo Building's east side. She's a very heavily streaked immature. And she's the first companion for the male I've seen since the wintering adult female left in mid-March.
copyright (c) 2000 Jim Lyles