This has been a disappointing spring. We miss watching our resident adults raise their chicks. The spring peregrine season in Seattle is different this year, to put it mildly. We have a lot of questions and few answers.
The latest news is that a pair has attempted to nest in a ventilation pit on the east side of One Union Square, 4 blocks east of the Washington Mutual Tower. There are two eggs in the ventilation pit. They have been there for at least a week, but it doesn't appear that the birds are incubating them. Both adults are double-banded, which is major news, because Stewart has never been banded. Whoever this male is, he isn't Stewart. No one has been able to read the VID bands, so we don't who these birds are. We suspect the female is Bell, based on her plumage, but this has not been confirmed. In addition to wondering who they are, we can only wonder why they are where they are - in a ventilation pit with just a bit of gravel, pigeon wings and other debris on the floor, rather than in the nest box on the WaMu Tower.
The West Seattle female is incubating, though observations suggest she may be incubating only sporadically. The bridge tenders report that a male is visiting the site. We believe that the male seen regularly at West Seattle for the past two breeding seasons and earlier this season is probably Stewart, so we hope to confirm that the male observed there recently is still the probable Stewart. However, it may be a different male - anything is possible.
We are still getting reports of a bird or birds at the Grain Terminal, though no one has tried to identify the birds for the last few weeks. Before that, it appeared that the same unbanded adult female was hanging around, though she seemed to have lost interest in the nest box.
The nest at the I-5 Ship Canal Bridge failed. When biologists checked the ledge this week, they found fragments of at least one broken egg in the box and a broken egg outside the box. We have no idea what happened. This was a big disappointment, since these birds attempted to nest last year, and, especially since he is the offspring of our downtown pair. All we can do, like them, is wait for next year and hope for a better outcome.
We hope we will be able to confirm the identities of the birds at One Union Square, the male at West Seattle, and the Grain Terminal bird or birds over the next few weeks. We would love to hear from any of you who have observations and/or information to pass on.
