First, let me start by saying that all 7 Falcons have been seen in the past 24 hours.  The Fab Five are doing great.

I arrived downtown around 6:00 a.m. this morning.  Dan was already out on the bridge.  He told me that he had not seen any falcons earlier, so we settled down for the morning watch.

We saw Mariah leading two juvies on hunt run over the High Falls Brewery.  Quest was one of them.

Next Kaver flew through on a food run.  As he flew towards the city, he picked up one, two and three juvies as he flew.  Dan and I watched him flying around Xerox, followed by three young Falcons.

Kaver headed back towards the old Changing Scenes Restaurant.  One juvie stayed near Xerox.  He lost #2 juvie before reaching the old CSR.  #3 juvie kept following Kaver, both heading towards the Kodak Tower.  Kaver did all kinds of maneuvers, the juvie kept up.  Dan and I were quite amazed by this young Falcon’s flying abilities.

They continued towards the tower.  When they reached it, they both started looping around the tower.  Each time they came around, Kaver gained speed.  Soon they were on opposite sides.  That’s when Kaver dove into the playpen on the north side.  When the juvie lost sight of Kaver, she gave up.  Yes, it was definitely a female.  She made her way back to the communication tower and landed on the middle arm.

Another juvie flew to the tower and landed on the northeast corner of the 20^th floor.  It was time for me to walk to the tower to see if I could ID the juvie on the tower.  It was an easy ID, it was Quest with her antenna.  I walked around to the north side of the tower and saw Kaver at the base of the playpen railing on the north side.  He was eating.  We hadn’t realized until then that Kaver was actually flying around with prey and that he had led his young ones on a merry chase.

I was unable to positively ID the female on the communication tower, but our suspicions were that it was Seneca or possibly Susan B.

They are all gaining the skills they will need to succeed.  All seem to be doing very well.

Carol P.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that all seven Falcons; Mariah, Kaver, Seneca, Susan B, Quest, Diamante and (drumroll please) Zephyr! were seen today by the Watchers.

All are doing extremely well. 🙂

Carol P.

It was overcast and drizzly, but that didn’t stop the morning crew
(Dan S, Jeanne, Larry O, Mike-A new Watcher and me) from showing up
on the bridge early this morning.

Larry caught sight of a juvie flying in front of the High Falls
Brewery, but didn’t see where it went. We spread out trying to find
it. That’s when we saw the brewery pigeons flying around in a
panic! There was our juvie, hot on their tails!!!

We all watched in amazement as this juvie chased the pigeons back and
forth, back and forth. Next victims, the starlings that had been
sitting on the brewery. Up they went! It was mass chaos! A
whirlwind of birds filled the air and right in the middle of it, one
very speedy Falcon. Eventually the juvie landed on the brewery and
all the other birds settled down.

After awhile, a 2nd juvie entered the gorge. We could definitely ID
this beauty. It was Quest! Both Quest and the unidentfied juvie
flew around the gorge together, eventually both landed on Skye’s
Building at the east end of the pedestrian bridge.

They remained there for awhile and then both took off heading
downtown.

We were never able to get an ID on the hunting juvie. All I can say
is that I believe it was either Diamante or Zephyr, due to the
smaller size when compared with Quest.

I will not be surprised to read a Watch report soon telling us that
one of the Fab Five have successfully hunted.

Carol P.

At 8:30 a.m., the rain stopped and I was ready to start my Watch. Three juvies could be seen at various spots in the gorge. I decided to head out to the observation deck and for the next 2 hours, I was entertained by their antics. Flying close by my position, overhead, chasing ducks, gulls and each other. Anything that moved was fair game, including the baby groundhog that lived on the grass in front of the observation deck.  Jeanne joined me for awhile and I told her that I had witnessed Diamante and Seneca tag teaming the gulls. I have never seen them do that before. One would fly low over the gulls, getting them to fly, while the other would fly above, chasing the gulls that took flight. This is the same behavior that the Watchers have seen when Mariah and Kaver tandem hunt. Very cool!

Jeanne had to leave and the flying continued. I was able to positively
ID 4 of the 5 juvies, Seneca, Diamante, Susan B and Quest.

At noon I was joined by Lisa McK and Larry O. After having to sit out
a really nasty downpour in our cars, we were witness to a food exchange
over the gorge by who, due to size, we were pretty sure was Kaver. Only
one juvie came up to accept the tidbit from Kaver, landing on the
Gorsline Building on the west side of the High Falls.

I left Lisa and Larry around 1:30 p.m. Mornings continue to be a great
time to see lots of incredible flying by our juvies.

Carol P.

It rained most of the day today. So, I was only able to get out a
couple of times inbetween the raindrops.

The first time was a little after noon. After raining all morning,
there was a sudden break in the dark clouds. So I jumped in my car
and drove to the east end of the pedestrian bridge. I wasn’t
surprised to see two of my fellow Watchers Kelly and Joyce (with
Casey) already checking things out. After about 2 hours of on again,
off again rain, sitting in our cars to wait it out, we had positively
ID’d Quest, Diamante and Seneca in the gorge. Two in what we
affectionately call the Falcon Sucking Tree (east side of the gorge
wall), named by fellow Falcon Fan Dale on a previous visit, and one on the gorge wall on the west side of the High Falls. It started pouring about 2:00 p.m., so Joyce and I left, hoping to return later in the day.

Around 6:00 p.m., the skies were still full of dark clouds, but it
had stopped raining. Again, I hopped into my car and headed
downtown. This time I met Larry O and his mom, Mary Ann, on the
bridge. Larry pointed out that there were 4 Falcons on the Kodak
Tower, one on the roof of Building 10 (aka Acon’s Peak), one on the
13th floor, one on the 17th floor and an adult on the Camera #1
support in front of the nest box.

We decided to head out to the observation deck, eventhough it was
threatening to rain yet again. As we neared our destination, we
spotted two Falcons flying towards the High Falls. We picked up our
pace, but arrived too late to see much flying. One juvie headed
downtown (we believe) and one landed in, yep you guessed it, the
Falcon Sucking Tree (FST)! There was still a juvie and the adult on
the Kodak Tower.

As Larry and his mom were leaving, Jeanne and Joyce joined me for a
damp, soggy Watch.

The adult flew out to the communication tower and we heard kakking
near the tower. All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity. I
believe that the 2nd adult (probably Kaver) came in with food and
three juvies, including the one in the FST, flew way off to the
south, where we lost sight of them.

When it started to rain, yet again, we had three Falcons in sight,
adult on the communication tower, juvie on the 13th floor of the
Kodak Tower and one on a tall building (Lincoln Chase) downtown,
where it had flown earlier. All in all, we had up to 4 juvies at one
time and possibly both adults seen this evening, with three
positively ID’d this afternoon.

Sounds like tomorrow is going to be another gray, cloudy day, but
hopefully not as rainy.

Carol P.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=171aim5l.c7fjz9vh&x=0&y=-wbte2t&localeid=en_US

or tiny url:

http://tinyurl.com/5ld5fn

Enjoy!

Carol P.

Larry O’heron and I got to spend our lunch hour in agreeable company indeed– Seneca graced us with a terrific air show in the gorge. I’ve put together some pictures here:
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/late-in-season-some-flashy-flying.html

Jim

The fledglings continued their impressive flying the past couple of days, though it hasn’t been as crazy or incredible as in previous days. Tuesday’s activity featured the girls. I shot some pictures, but left a little before Carol arrived to take her series of video clips. Here’s my report:

http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/girls-in-gorge.html

This morning Seneca did all the flying, and presented us with a little unexpected surprise to boot. Read about it here:

http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/mostly-solo-seneca.html

Jim

I wish there were more than 24 hours in the day. I just don’t have
time to share my pictures and videos. So I took a break to post
these 7 video snippets for your entertainment. They are of the very
beautiful Seneca, first eating on Pride’s Rock and then scampering in
the grass behind Pride’s Rock. In one, she actually eats a purple
flower! Watchers included Lynda, Kris, Bill and myself. I also have
many pictures to share, someday.

http://tinyurl.com/5hhe3q

http://tinyurl.com/66jyuk

http://tinyurl.com/68mbpa

http://tinyurl.com/57v3nd

http://tinyurl.com/686vyu

http://tinyurl.com/6kdgqy

http://tinyurl.com/5qaujo

http://tinyurl.com/6hqqat

All of these tinyurl’s will bring you to a separate video snippet set-
up on my KGallery site. No sign on needed.

I couldn’t just choose a few to share, so I share them all. There is
some graphic eating by Seneca, so beware. 😉

Enjoy!

Carol P.

It was another one-of-a-kind morning to witness flying up close from all five fledglings! I hope you’ll enjoy the pictures and report that I’ve assembled:

http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/another-exemplary-morning.html

Jim