The saga continues. As you may recall, we had installed a
nest box outside a 23rd floor window of the First Interstate
building for the pair of adult Peregrine Falcons who had
wintered in the City of Destiny.

But then a few weeks ago, the adult female up and flew the coop,
presumably to the north and to her established nesting site. So
the adult male was left solo. He hung around the old roosting
place on the First Interstate Building and the usual perches
on the 11th Street bridge. (He even looked a little morose
and--who knows?--may have contemplated jumping off the bridge,
except that, well, he's a bird.)

Anyway, a week or two ago, a juvenile female showed up, and
he and she spent lots of time calling at each other like a
couple of worn-out wheel bearings and whirling through the
sky over the waterways in an aerial fandango.

But then this past weekend, the male disappeared. Why? Maybe it
was because the young female was just so darned clumsy. She
just couldn't get the knack of landing smarting on the corners
of the downtown buildings or the girders of the bridge. Often
she'd try to settle on a building corner and slip and slip again
and then give up, trying an easier landing somewhere else, like
the big orange First Interstate logos on the south and west
sides of the building.

But today the plot has thickened. (Cue the ominous organ music.)
The adult male showed up again today. And so did a new subadult
female. The new female is poised, landing anywhere she likes
with practiced deftness. She also seems to have a peculiar taste
for ring-billed gulls. Or at least she took one today rather than
the pigeons all around. And she and the male have vigorously
called at each other and chased around the bridge today.

Where's the first young female? This morning she was at her
usual place on the orange building logo. But for now she has
slipped away. We haven't seen her confront the new young female.

So, here in Tacoma, the peregrine love saga continues.

The Tacoma peregrine hotline, which Barbara Irby updates daily,
is 925-6599.

--cheers, Jim lyles
<jrlyles at usgs.gov> or <jrlyles at eskimo.com>