When I heard that Zephyr had fledged this morning, I headed out to search for him on the tower.  I quickly found him on the 20th floor, eastside of the Kodak Tower.  After about an hour, Zephyr took off and flew around to the southside of the tower.  Kaver soon joined him, escorting him back towards the building, where he landed on a slanted metal roof.  After sliding 1/2 way down, Zephyr spread his wings and was soon airborne again.  This time he made a pinpoint landing on the 20th floor, southside.  That was just his 2nd flight?  Wow!  He’s going to be a wonderful flyer.

I grabbed some lunch at noon and missed Susan B’s fledge flight at 12:30.  By the time I returned to Watch, she was safe on the 19th floor, southside.  Good for her!

When I left at 6:30 p.m., Zephyr was back in the playpen with Diamonte, Quest and Seneca remained in the nest box and Susan B was located on the southeast corner of the 19th floor, where she had found a tidbit of food earlier.

All was well, hopefully it remained so after I left!  I’ll be downtown early tomorrow morning.

Carol P.

Here are some notes and pictures from my noontime fledge watch, featuring Susan B’s inaugural flight!
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/06/zephyr-and-susan-b-take-plunge.html

Jim

I left the office to spend a very nice weather lunch downtown and to see what the eyases were up to. When I arrived at Falcon HQ, I found Carol, Ben and Ben’s dad.

They brought me up to speed. Zephyr was hopping around the 20th floor K-O-D-A-K letters, Mariah was on the archway column and Kaver was by the rockets. Things stayed pretty quiet until a Turkey Vulture drifted towards the tower. The alarm kak’s went out, and the TV drifted away. Mariah was very attentive on the TV while it was in the vicinity.

Carol had to leave; June showed up; Lisa arrived; and Jim P dropped down to say hello. Shortly after that Mariah took off over the gorge. I did not see her again for the rest of the watch.

At some point, Zephyr took off from the letters and made a nice loop with some excellent flying and then executed a perfect landing on the rail of the southeast corner of the playpen. A picture-perfect landing. We were marveling at Zephyr’s aerobatic skill which looks quite good. It was certainly a much better landing than this morning’s landing on the slate roof.

Of course, later we caught sight of another peregrine in the air and as we focused our binoculars on it, the very distinctive tail markings of an eyas were visible. Too big to be Zephyr, we realized that we had a second fledge going on. She made some turns and headed for the letters, but the landing was poor. Off she went for more turns before eventually making it to the 19th floor ledge on the south side. There we watched for the rest of my time.

Quite a day so far!!

Larry O

Having checked kfalconcam before I left the house, I knew that the situation was 3 girls at the scrape and 2 boys in the playpen.

Got downtown and saw Dan S at the falconwatch hq. We chatted for awhile while keeping an eye on the tower.  Kaver was no where to be seen. Mariah was on the lightning arrester (SE corner). The three girls were in the scrape and one eyas was on the SE corner of the playpen, outside the railing. One male was not
visible.  Kaver had not brought in any food, so there had not been a feeding yet.

The first action occurred when Mariah did a stoop over the Bru, so of course, we lost sight of her pretty quickly. She came back empty-taloned. Then she did a second stoop out over BeeBee and again came back empty-taloned. So by this point, Dan and I were conditioned to seeing Mariah leaving the tower.

Around 7:20 we saw a falcon again in the air looping in front of the tower. Dan and I both thought it was Mariah. However, the falcon went for a landing on the grey slate peaked roof, but missed and instead landed on the slate, where it promptly slid down the slate. Both Dan and I realized that this was an eyas on a fledge.

We watched the fledge take back to the air and make a loop to the north side where we lost sight. Let me say that the flying was graceful and aesthetic. We had no idea that is was a fledge struggling. Only the landing gave it away.  Dan and I walked to the north but could not locate the fledge.  Presumably it made it to the 20th floor and was behind the balustrades where we may not see it for quite some time.  Dan and I returned to hq and joined up with Lisa M. The three girls were accounted for as was Mariah who was quite serene in her guardianship. We quickly spotted an eyas on the SE floodlight but inside the rail.

So there are two possibilities: The fledge returned or the other male made himself visible.

The rest of the watch was quiet. So it was time to head to work and post this message.

Larry O

I arrived to meet Carol P and Marcia braving the cold ! It was like a Rochester November day ! At least the rain wasn’t torrential like last night!  Kaver and Mariah were gently flying in lovely circles around the tower to the sounds of their kakking children.

Susan B spent the whole watch flapping back and forth on top of the nest box, Seneca barely popped her head out from inside, and Quest never went farther than the perch. Diamonte was flapping with in the  playpen and Zephyr only gave us a few frights when he almost lifted off from the corner of the ledge on the outside of the playpen bars. Zephyr treated us to a walk or two across the front of the playpen rail ..on the outside of course!

Mariah peerched most of the night by the rocket ships and kaver stayed close by the arch above the box.  Lisa McK joined us, and Angela D and her mom Tammy braved the weather as did a new watcher and friend whose name I didn’t catch. Tom the security gurd came out for a quick watch, and Diana and Jeanne showed up at the end of the night . All in all it was a quiet, safe watch.

My official Watch was a little slow. The weather was horrible. Rainy,
damp and miserable. Where is our warm weather? Feels more like Fall
out there.

Not much going on, beside flapping, kakking and smoke stacking. Yep,
Kaver brought in food and Mariah grabbed it, bringing it to the High
Falls Stack to prep for the lucky girls in the nest box.  Zephyr and Diamante would have to wait for their turn to eat.

I was joined by Kelly at 5:00 p.m., Marcia soon after that and then
Liza O and Lisa McK arrived around 6:30 p.m. My Watch ended around 7:00 p.m.

All 7 were accounted for during my watch, M&K, Quest and Seneca in the nest box, Susan B on top of the nest box, Zephyr and Diamante in the playpen.

Could we have a fledge tomorrow? Stay tuned.

Carol P.

No fledge as of 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning (6/17/08) EST. Zephyr is still running around the outside of the playpen and the rest are at the nest box. Kaver brought in food a little before 8:00 a.m. He decided to deliver it to the eyases at the nest box himself. Mariah was not happy and the chase was on! The prey was finally delivered to the nest box.

Zephyr was given food last night and I’m sure that he’ll get his share this morning.

I arrived around 6:15 to catch dear little Zephyr walking the plank , very confidently, I must say traveling by talon back and forth on the OUTSIDE of the playpen. We were a bit nervous!

The other 3 Juvies were in the box and Susan B was on the perch. Susan B was flapping a lot.

Mariah and Kaver both brought in food one to the playpen and one to the nestbox.

Then the storm hit, Carol and I retreated to our cars to wait it out, about 6:20-6:50 pm. We saw a great rainbow over downtown as Lisa Mck joined us. It was great catching up with them as I hibernate all winter!

Our Favorite Kodak Security guard , Tom came by and was wearing his falcon watch button, proud that the supervisors were letting him wear it on his uniform! We saw Mariah join Kaver at the communications tower directly south of the tower,they sit there and watch the children very closely. Mariah would fly out and circle the tower to show Zephyr how to fly.

Zephyr went into the playpen during the storm which was a relief to know that he does know how to protect himself. But soon , he was back out on the ledge and starting to flap away . At one point he was on the edge of the corner and started to flap profusely…we thought this was it but he gained control!..It won’t be long now!

Mariah and Kaver flew a tandem stoop going south , but we never saw prey. They landed again on the comm tower. Kaver brought food to the playpen for Zephyr . Zephyr soon calmed down as he ate in the playpen area. We left at about 8 as the storm turned the weather cold. The babies were safe and Mom and Dad were across the way and watching over.

Tomorrow will be a big day …especially for Master Zephyr.

My Official Watch yesterday (6/17/08) was from 4 – 6:15 p.m., when Liza showed up. There wasn’t much activity during that time. Some flying by Mariah and Kaver, flapping by the eyases in the nest box, Susan B settled on the side of the nest box and of course, Zephyr running around like a, well like a very young Tiercel that is getting ready to fledge.

The thunderstorm hit around 6:30 p.m. It was really bad, with torrential rain, strong winds, thunder, lightning and hail. Liza and I ran to our cars, seeking shelter until it was over. My car was in the Kodak Visitor’s Parking Lot facing the tower. As I watched, the tower, lightning directly struck the lightning rod, also know as Kaver’s lilies, at the very top of the Kodak Tower. I was so thankful that Kaver had not chosen his favorite spot to wait out the storm. I don’t even like to think about what may have happened to him.

Right after the lightning strike, Mariah flew off of the tower and landed on the nest box to protect her young ones.

After the storm passed, there was a beautiful rainbow over the city of Rochester (NY). It never ceases to amaze me, what we see on our Falcon Watches.

Carol P. arrived around 10:30 and we soon saw vigorous wing-flapping at the west side of the nest box. (The cameras confirmed that it was Susan B on the ledge there). A few minutes later we saw Zephyr, flapping his wings in the playpen and running back forth as if encouraging Susan B to join him – which she eventually did, a few minutes after 11:00. Mariah moved to the ledge at the east side of the nest box. Kaver chased a turkey vulture away and returned to his lily. There was lots of wing exercising but no fledging, and also no feeding, before I had to leave at noon.