Hello:

Panting and gaping wouldn't be unusual for a bird in the sun. It's hard to
know what the opening and closing the beak was, without seeing it or being
able to hear if there was a vocalization. They open the beak wide and close
it slowly when making wailing vocalizations (to the mate). It looks pretty
strange if you can't hear them. They do something somewhat similar when
there's a feather caught in the throat, but that's usually accompanied by
head and neck movements that make it easier to decipher. I've been with the
WAMU project since the beginning in 1994, and I've seen beak movements (with
no accompanying vocalizations) over the years that I have no idea how to
decipher.
I hope this isn't too much of a non-answer. I don't think what you saw was a
sign that anything was wrong, but I appreciate your concern.
BTW, the Falcon Research Group web cam is up and running at www.frg.org.
This is a new pair, and they have two small young (the first hatched either
late Saturday or early Sunday morning and the second hatched late Sunday
morning).

Ruth Taylor
Seattle
rutht at seanet.com


-----Original Message-----
From: camelama at speakeasy.net <camelama at speakeasy.net>
To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu <Tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, May 18, 2006 9:57 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] WAMU Tower Peregrines - Seattle


>
>This morning on my way in to work I stopped and watched the lobby video
feed of the WAMU Tower Peregrines at about 8:15am.
>
>One of the birds was sitting on the nest, its back to the camera, with the
sun coming in from the left.
>
>It looked to be panting shallowly, and was ... gaping? Opening its beak
wide, holding it open for a while, then closing it slowly - repeatedly.
>
>Is this normal behavior? I watched for about 5 minutes but, already being
late to the office, I had to leave the lobby. (Alas!)
>
>Susan Collicott
>camelama at speakeasy.net
>Seattle, WA
>Sunset Hill neighborhood
>
>
>
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