24 Could 2025
On Thursday I wrote concerning the Pitt peregrine banding on 21 Could — see story & pictures right here — however I didn’t embrace a photograph of the weird prey merchandise Patti Barber discovered on the nest. It was the cranium of an American woodcock (Scolopax minor), a “timberdoodle.”
I’ve by no means seen a woodcock within the metropolis and definitely not in Schenley, the closest park to Pitt’s campus. Schenley’s habitat shouldn’t be appropriate for woodcocks however they do courtroom, and subsequently breed, at North Park’s Higher Area.
In spring and fall American woodcocks migrate at night time, passing over the Metropolis of Pittsburgh on their manner.
I think about this one was flying above the Cathedral of Studying one night time when the peregrines noticed it lit by the constructing lights and flew as much as get it. Sure, peregrines do hunt at night time if there’s considerable prey and sufficient gentle to see it.
At research printed in 2006 documented peregrines searching at night time on the Empire State Constructing and in 2019 Jeffrey Ward took a video of 1 searching within the 911 Tribute Lights in New York Metropolis. See the small print on the hyperlinks under:
So what about this sudden prey merchandise?
The Cathedral of Studying is lit on the nights after sports activities victories by Victory Lights much like the 911 Tribute Lights. In October 2018 I wrote concerning the Victory Lights’ lethal attraction for migrating birds and inside two weeks Pitt had a plan to cycle the lights each hour to interrupt to spell they forged on migrating birds.
If this woodcock was drawn to the Victory lights he would have been launched throughout the hour. With three hungry mouths to feed, the peregrines didn’t wait that lengthy. 🙂
