Four baby peregrine falcons are expected to fledge from their nest under the Tarentum Bridge by the end of next week.<\/p>\n
It brings the number of hatchlings to 31 for the mama bird which makes its home in a man-made box installed by the state game commission in 2015 on the bridge\u2019s second pier, near the New Kensington side.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey hatched on May 3,\u201d said Harrison resident Dave Brooke, a member of the Friends of Harrison Hills who has monitored the falcons since 2018 and reported his findings to the game commission.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was late for this female by at least a week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Brooke spotted the first chicks in mid-April, and they fledged around the end of May.<\/p>\n
Incubation typically lasts up to 35 days. They are tended to by their parents for another 40 days or so while they prepare to take flight.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an exciting time for bird enthusiasts as the Tarentum Bridge nest is significant to the health of the peregrine falcon species across the region.<\/p>\n
The birds were previously listed on the federal and state endangered species lists after pesticides like DDT wiped out their populations in the mid-1960s. There were about 44 pairs of peregrine falcons before they disappeared from Pennsylvania in the first half of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
Decades of work has led to a recovery in the numbers to the point where it is secure, according to the game commission.<\/p>\n
Peregrines were removed from the state\u2019s endangered species list in 2021, a few years after the birds started breeding in Tarentum.<\/p>\n
According to The National Aviary, the six nests in Allegheny County that were recorded during the Audubon Christmas Bird Count in December is the highest number ever.<\/p>\n
Brooke said the Tarentum peregrines have an abundant food source with the number of pigeons and sparrows around the rivers.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s a new threat to the birds that experts are tracking.<\/p>\n
The avian flu has been confirmed in more than 50 dead Peregrines nationwide since 2023, according to the USDA.<\/p>\n
Avian experts fear that the actual number is much higher, according to the website.<\/p>\n
In Tarentum, the birds will face another obstacle next year with construction work planned on the bridge.<\/p>\n
PennDOT officials are working with the game commission to protect the falcons during a three-year, $97.5 million rehab project.<\/p>\n
Early safeguards have been proposed to include no work to be done within 1,000 feet of the falcon box until after breeding and nesting season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four baby peregrine falcons are expected to fledge from their nest under the Tarentum Bridge by the end…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-694843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}