Photos: Peregrine falcons welcome first hatchling at UC Berkeley

Two Bay Area falcons nesting atop the Campanile at the University of California Berkeley welcomed their first of four expected hatchlings on Tuesday.

Half a mile away from their nest, birding enthusiasts like Julie Ashworth and her son were invited to celebrate the occasion at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, which hosted a stream of the camera surveilling the falcons on its large outdoor screen.

“We’ve been watching them remotely for a while — maybe three years now — so we got to see all the drama with Alden. Grinnell was a favorite,” Ashworth said of her and her 5-year-old son Rowan at the museum. “My son is very interested in birds. … There was an interest in dinosaurs when he was younger, it became then lizards and now it’s birds. I think following their life cycles is really amazing.”

Alden and Grinnell are Annie’s past mates. She first nested atop Sather Tower in 2017 and hatched two chicks that year and three more in 2018. The university installed three cameras now streaming on its Falcon Cam site in 2019.

Annie’s latest mate Lou replaced Alden, who disappeared Nov. 23, 2022. Alden’s brief stint with Annie began when he swooped into Annie’s nest hours after the death of Grinnell — her partner before Alden. Lou arrived in January and was named by March following a Valentine’s Day contest.

Peregrine falcons like Annie and her hatchlings are the fastest animals on Earth and can top 200 miles per hour when diving in flight, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The species faced extinction before use of the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) was banned in the U.S. in 1972.

There are more than 400 self-sustaining peregrine falcon pairings scattered across California today, according to the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife.

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Slow-moving scene as people watch the peregrine falcon hatching ⁦@BAMPFA⁩ in ⁦@CityofBerkeley⁩. Maybe the Falcons should have a pitch clock like @mlb? ???? People have been out here all day! #berkeley #falcons ⁦@EastBayTimes⁩ ⁦@OakTribNews⁩ pic.twitter.com/O59jhwydkG

— Tyska (@Tyska) April 11, 2023