People watch a big screen during UC Berkeley’s peregrine falcon hatch party at the The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, Calif., on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. The first of falcon Annie's four hatchlings came Monday afternoon and experts are predicting all four chicks will be hatched atop UC Berkeley’s Campanile tower by the end of the day Tuesday. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
It was clear from the start: Annie was going to be a star.
In late 2016, people began noticing a pair of peregrine falcons flying around the UC Berkeley campus. The birds weren’t being secretive, says biologist Sean Peterson, but it still took a while to narrow down where they might be roosting: atop the iconic Campanile bell tower.
With permission from the university, a small handful of volunteers climbed a hidden spiral staircase concealed in one of the Campanile’s columns. The passageway was so narrow, the intrepid explorers had to push their backpacks ahead of themselves.
At the top, they found a small opening covered by wooden slats — and a pair of piercing yellow eyes staring back at them. It was Annie, sitting on the torn sandbags that served as her nest.
Since then, Annie and her mates have captured the attention of a wide audience. Thousands of people from around the world watch the web cams installed on the Campanile, following every dramatic moment in the falcons’ lives — including some complicated love triangles.
“I think people have a really strong desire to connect with nature in general,” says Peterson, who was one of the original volunteers, “and here you have this iconic bird right there in the middle of one of the biggest campuses in the world. It’s a little bit of wildness people can see.”
Many of Annie’s online followers have taken a personal interest in the birds. They celebrate each egg hatching, mourn the loss of chicks and follow and comment on every avian development on social media — yes, of course, Cal Falcons has its own social media. But it’s Annie’s love life that garners the most discussion and sometimes, clutching of pearls.
Annie and her original mate, Grinnell, seemed the perfect pair. But in October 2021, he was injured while fighting off would-be interlopers and taken to Walnut Creek’s Lindsay Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital to recuperate. In Grinnell’s absence, another male began putting moves on Annie, and much to the horror of online watchers, Annie started responding.
The chatter on Cal Falcons’ Facebook page was filled with speculation. Would Grinnell be able to win Annie back? Would he even try? Who was this upstart falcon anyway?
Those questions were answered a few weeks later when the now-recovered Grinnell returned to the Campanile, drove off Annie’s would-be suitor and resumed his place in Annie’s heart. In early 2022, Annie laid two eggs and was on track to lay a third, when Grinnell apparently was struck by a car and died.
While his many fans mourned Grinnell’s death, a new male — Alden — quickly entered the picture and began courting Annie, bringing her food as she sat on the nest. Annie, perhaps knowing the eggs stood no chance, if she didn’t have a mate to help her, immediately accepted the newcomer. Two days after he entered the picture, she laid a third egg. Alden did a wonderful job stepping in as father and provider to the two chicks that hatched, Lindsay and Grinnell Jr.
Falcon fans accepted him, too, but last November, Alden disappeared. There’s speculation that he may have fallen victim to a bird flu that was prevalent in shorebirds – Alden’s favorite prey – that year.
Annie had no shortage of new suitors, showing that the peregrine falcon, once so endangered that the entire state was home to just two mated pairs, is making a strong comeback.
Lou managed to win Annie’s heart, and the pair produced three chicks in 2023.
Cal Falcon volunteers appreciate all the interest Annie attracts, although some observers get a little too involved. When some online viewers became convinced the chicks weren’t getting enough food, they called Animal Control.
“They’re not pets,” Peterson says, “even though a lot of people assume ownership of them. I’m just glad people have such very strong associations, and I hope that will lead them to appreciate wildlife.”
Learn more
Annie and Lou aren’t the only peregrine falcon celebrities around the Bay Area, of course. Falcons have been spotted flying near Hoover Tower at Stanford and roosting atop San Jose City Hall, as well as at Mount Diablo, which has two known mated pairs.
Nearly 50 peregrine chicks were born at PG&E’s former Beale Street building in San Francisco between 2004 and 2021, when the building was sold, and their offspring continue to pop up. One of them — Grace — was the falcon-in-residence at San Jose City Hall from 2019 until 2022.
Watch San Jose’s newest peregrine family via webcam at www.facebook.com/SanJoseCityHallFalcons. Learn more about the Cal Falcons and watch the Campanile livestream at www.facebook.com/CalFalconCam and https://calfalcons.berkeley.edu.
And if you happen to ramble around Alcatraz, you may spot one of Annie and Grinnell’s offspring, a female named Lawrencium, nicknamed Larry, who hatched in 2018, raising the couple’s grandchicks on the island.
Originally published at Joan Morris, Correspondent