Hi, Lorrie
Thanks for writing.
You ask a question the audience at the talk on Thursday evening had, too.
Alan from GGRO said they don’t notice the bells! Behavior doesn’t change
noticeably.

For the human effects, on the other hand,
read The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers, a Lord Peter Wimsey novel that
resurrected the almost lost art (or at least increased the appreciation) of
“ringing the changes” on carillons.

On Mar 22, 2019, at 11:31 AM, Lorrie Klosterman <loklosterman@...>

wrote:

Hi folks,
I've wondered how the peregrines nesting in UC Berkeley's campanile can

tolerate the tremendous "gong" of the bells as they chime out the top of
the hour daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Do they fly out each time?

Because I live a few blocks from campus -- within ear-shot of the bells

-- I watched the nest videocam when I heard the bells from my apartment. To
my disbelief, the bird on the nest had absolutely no reaction. But then,
just as the chimes stopped, the bird shook its head, several times in a
row, in a rhythmic fashion -- which is when I realized that the gongs were
going off on the videocam (barely audible). So there is a slight delay
between real time (my apartment) and what we view on the videocam. Knowing
that, I watched again on the next hour, and listened for the gongs on the
videocam. Sure enough, again the bird shook its head in rhythm with the
gongs. It also sometimes opened its beak very wide, or looked as though it
was going to regurgitate. All of those behaviors seem to me evidence that
the bird is having a physical reaction to the sound. Because its hearing
system (like ours) includes narrow tubes which connect the middle ear to
its throat, the beak/throat movements might be the peregrine's equivalent
of our attempts to "clear our ears" with a change in air pressure. Well, at
least it didn't fly away, which is what I was expecting. What, I wonder,
will happen during the long Sunday afternoon serenade?

Update -- this just in! While writing this, the 11 a.m. bells went off

and the nesting bird had no head reactions this time. I don't know if it's
the same bird as yesterday (do males and females take turns incubating?)
This bird's tail, however, was slightly pumping -- hmm, is this the female
laying another egg?

--Lorrie K.

On Fri, Mar 22, 2019, 8:09 AM Alan Kaplan <LNKPLN67@...> wrote:
Friends!
I returned from the GGAS talk by Alan Fish on the falcons and looked at

WebCam 1.

Annie the female was near the eggs and then covered them for

incubation. This was at 2133hrs, Thursday 3,21.19. A great big Thank You to
everyone working on these WebCams at the Campanile.

Best of Boids!
Alan Kaplan

On Mar 23, 2019, at 11:02 AM, tracy_farrington via Groups.Io <tracy_farrington=yahoo.com@groups.io> wrote:

At 8:30, this morning, I found the HARRIS'S SPARROW on the mowed lawn south of the red barn, which
is at the south end of the grassy ball field. As before, it was among 20+ Golden-crowned Sparrows. A bit
later, I was joined by Kai Mills and Erica Kawata, and together, we had good looks at this continuing
bird.
Just about Spring, folks!
Good birding,
Tracy Farrington
Walnut Creek