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Protecting City Hall’s very own falcon’s nest — with a broom

Inquirer staff photographer Jessica Griffin rode a cramped, musty City Hall Tower elevator up to the 15th floor, where a peregrine falcon has long built her nest, to capture a yearly ritual.

Tu Huynh, with the City's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, blocks a parent peregrine falcon from their nest on City Hall Tower May 15, 201, while staffers with the Pennsylvania Game Commission do a nest inspection and banding of a fledgling. One 18 day old nestling and three unhatched eggs were in the nest. F. Arthur McMorris, the commission's falcon coordinator, noted the unhatched eggs were probably the result of the female’s declining fertility due to age (she is 13 years old).
Tu Huynh, with the City's Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy, blocks a parent peregrine falcon from their nest on City Hall Tower May 15, 201, while staffers with the Pennsylvania Game Commission do a nest inspection and banding of a fledgling. One 18 day old nestling and three unhatched eggs were in the nest. F. Arthur McMorris, the commission's falcon coordinator, noted the unhatched eggs were probably the result of the female’s declining fertility due to age (she is 13 years old).Read moreStaff Photographer / JESSICA GRIFFIN

Inquirer staff photographer Jessica Griffin rode a cramped, musty City Hall Tower elevator up to the 15th floor, where a peregrine falcon has long built her nest, to capture a yearly ritual: Pennsylvania Game Commission workers outfitting falcon nestlings with tracking devices to keep watch over the population of the once-endangered species. One 18-day-old nestling and three unhatched eggs were in the nest. F. Arthur McMorris, the commission’s falcon coordinator, noted that the unhatched eggs were probably the result of the 13-year-old mother’s declining fertility. As the team attached the tracking bands and checked the baby’s health, Griffin captured this photo of Tu Huynh, with the City’s Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, yielding a broom to block the mother from interfering with the 20-minute process. “Someone said watch out for their claws and your hair," said Griffin.