Fans of the downtown Salt Lake City peregrine falcon cam may be in for another disappointment this year.
The online stream of the nesting box located at the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial building in downtown has officially gone live, but, for the moment, anxious fans won’t find anything when they tune in. Bob Walters is the watchable wildfire coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. He says while a falcon pair hasn’t decided to nest there yet, there’s still some hope.
“I actually have spotted a bird and kind of believe it or not, in any pair, you have to start with a first bird,” he says.
While this is the time of year that a falcon traditionally begins laying eggs, Walters says it’s still not too late for some pair to claim the nesting box.
“I think easily we could wait until the end of the month and maybe go 15 days into the next month," he says. "If it doesn’t materialize, if we don’t have a nesting family of peregrines, we’ll just go forward. And changes are it will occur in the future. And in the interim I tell people to cross their fingers. Don’t give up. It’s possible.”
This would be the second straight year with an empty box if the situation doesn’t change. Last year one of the falcons died after running into a building, while they other died of a respiratory infection.
