Dubuque Courthouse Falcon Nest, Top View Live Cam

This camera looks straight down into the gravel-lined peregrine falcon nest box on a fifth-floor ledge of the courthouse in Dubuque, Iowa. The pale wooden sides of the box frame a floor of small pebbles, with weathered stonework pressing in on the right.

Peregrines first tried to nest on the bare ledge of this 1890s building, and strong wind rolled their eggs off the edge. Courthouse workers then built a nest box with raised sides to keep the eggs safe. The pair lays its eggs in early spring, while for much of the rest of the year the gravel stays empty.

Of the cameras around the nest, this one is mounted directly overhead, so the whole floor of the box is in view. Orange clay tiles and a window edge line the left side. Sunlight and shade shift across the pebbles during the day, and a falcon stepping into the box is seen from above.