86th and West End Peregrine Falcons

By D. Bruce Yolton86th and WEA Peregrine Falcons, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

The 86th and West End Peregrine Falcon’s nesting area has been found on the SW tower of the St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church. There are four eyasses (young falcons) on the tower.

The nesting area is on a large flat area that looks to have once had a skylight inside, which is now covered with roofing paper, and a ledge that wraps around the outside. The eyasses have a huge area to explore. On the outer edge there is netting to keep loose stone from falling to the street. This netting is acting as a guardrail for the eyasses. The large covered area allows the eyasses to stay dry in the rain.

It isn’t clear where on this large area the scrape (falcons make a shallow bowl in gravel as a nesting area) was located. Something to figure out in 2023.

The adult female is the same one as last year, with the 77 over BV, black over green with white lettering band. She was born on the Du Bois Library, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and banded that year, in 2019.

I was very windy this afternoon, which bounced my camera all over the place, so the quality of the images isn’t what I would have liked. However, I was able to salvage some footage, and some stills.

The eyasses are exploring the flat area under the open arches in this photograph. They can sometimes be seen from the street at the first eastbound stop of the M86 bus at 86th Street and Broadway.