Falcon Cam: Reality TV for Bird Lovers

Good morning. It’s Friday, and we’ll find out about a closely watched nest of peregrine falcons in Lower Manhattan. We’ll also get details on how former Gov. Andrew Cuomo scored another victory in his battle against the ethics panel created by his successor, Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Credit…via 55 Water

There are birders who have been counting the days since March 25. And also April 2.

On those days a peregrine falcon laid the first and last of several eggs in a nest that is both private and closely watched in Lower Manhattan. The nest is private because it is on a windowless ledge of an office building that towers over South Street and Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive.

The nest is closely watched because what happens there can be seen on Falcon Cam, a video feed from a camera above the nest. “An urban naturalist’s reality TV,” the writer Lenora Todaro called the feed.

The female has occupied the nest since 2020. The male is new this year, said Barbara Saunders, who has followed several generations of peregrine falcons there.

The female is apparently older than the male: He was born there, in 2020. And the clock is ticking on the cycle for hatching the eggs, usually about 35 days after they were laid.