A new falcon made a brief appearance atop the Campanile tower on the UC Berkeley campus on Wednesday, and falcon watchers are hopeful this bird will make a return and perhaps adopt the now abandoned nest.

We learned last week that Berkeley's resident peregrine falcons, Annie and Archie, were missing in action and had not been seen on the falcon cams atop the Campanile for about two months. Annie is now feared dead along with her most recent mate, likely of avian flu though there could also be some other cause.

Annie had been nesting in the tower's well-surveilled nest since 2016 and has had one long-term (Grinnell) and several short-term mating partners over the years. And the average lifespan of a peregrine in the wild is six years, so Annie was already beating the odds at age ten or older.

The Cal Falcons Facebook page and Instagram lit up Thursday with an image from one of the cameras of a new peregrine falcon who took in the views from the tower for about 15 minutes before departing. The image came from just before 5 pm on Wednesday.

"Fingers crossed it will continue to hang out and get to know the area!" the group member notes. They added, "Based on head, bill shape, and skin and feather coloration, it appears to be a new bird."

Peregrine falcons tend to establish nests and territories and then remain there for years, defending the territory from incursion by other falcons and returning to nest in the same place annually.

San Francisco used to have its own falcon camera atop PG&E's headquarters at 77 Beale Street, and resident female falcon Val (who may still be nesting there for all we know), but the camera went dark in late 2021 as PG&E was getting ready to move out of the building.

Annie gave birth to 22 chicks in her years nesting on the Campanile, and it's always possible one of them could make there way back to claim the nest (they all got ankle bands before fledging, so we will know if this happens). But whichever falcon may find their way here, as falcon expert Sean Peterson told ABC 7 last week, "We'll get a whole new season as it [were], a new cast of characters" in the falcon soap opera live feed.

Stay tuned, because mating season for peregrines is right now.

Previously: Berkeley Falcon Watchers Voice Avian Flu Fears After Falcon Annie and Mate Go Missing