Hello all – Tom from Kodak here.

I posted some up close and personal pictures, mostly of Susan B., and mostly from today, here:

http://tomhoehn.1000words.kodak.com/

Let me start by saying that all is well at the Kodak Tower.  All five eyases/fledglings were accounted for when I left at 8:00 p.m.  Seneca has made her leap into the playpen and I’m sure she will fledge sometime soon.  Quest, Diamante and Zephyr are doing very well, especially Zephyr who is the guardian angel of this group.  He checks on all his siblings to make sure they’re ok.  Susan B is a little tentative about flying after her rescue yesterday.  She was seen resting on a lower building just south of the Kodak Tower.  I saw her flapping her wings and running around.  She looks well.

Zephyr has become his mom’s shadow, harrassing her every chance he gets.  He even followed her out to the communication tower south of the Kodak Tower.

I had a close encounter with Mariah and a Mourning Dove.  Mariah was flying above the High Falls Smokestack where Zephyr, Diamante and Quest were arguing over who would finish the meal supplied to Quest earlier by Mariah.  I was watching the very noisy game of tug-of-war when I spotted Mariah stoop (high speed dive) behind the building in front of me.  I looked to see where she went when I was buzzed by a very low flying Mourning Dove.  Right on the MD’s tail was Mariah, who also buzzed me.  I could hear wind whistle though her feathers, that’s how close she was.  She paid no attention to me, her sights on the Mourning Dove frantically racing to keep ahead of her.

I watched in amazement as the Mourning Dove swerved to the right, causing Mariah to break off her chase.  That was one lucky Mourning Dove!

I will forever be amazed by Mariah and Kaver’s hunting abilities.  They are truly unbelieveable.

Carol P.

There was excitement aplenty this afternoon and a daring rescue for one of the falcons! Read all about it here:
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/06/exciting-evening-for-girls.html

Jim

Just a quick post to let everyone know that all five eyases/fledglings
have been accounted for. We had missed Susan B. for most of the day,
but thankfully found her on the ground (that’s a whole other story!).
I was just so happy to have found her.

Quest is all over the place. She’s like the energizer bunny on
steroids. She is also ok after a very rocky start.

Zephyr is a PRO! He is unbelieveable.

Diamante is a lily boy. He is trying so hard to reach his dad’s
favorite spot, but has yet to make it. LOL

Then, there’s Seneca, who will know best when it is time for her to fly.

A very long and tiring day.

Carol P.

Dave and I got there just before noon. A lot of the regulars were there. Some of them were a block away watching Quest stay out of trouble…That’s someone else’s tale to tell. We saw Mariah & Kaver fly out over the gorge..looking for food or the kids. Seneca still refuses to leave the comforts of home. But she sure can scream for food. We think it was Diamante that landed on the top of the slanted roof and skied down between the A & K until he took flight again, this time with Mariah. Zephyr was on the High Falls Stack. The only one that I did not see was Susan B. Right around 1:30 everyone decided it was a good time for a nap. That’s where I left them at 2:30. It was a good watch until it rained. Good thing we were under the tent!!!!

ginha

Well, my first ‘official’ watch was pretty exciting and Quest kept us running! When we arrived a group of watchers were in the parking lot on Frankfurt St. and Brown St. across from building 10, about a block away
from the tower, where they had followed her on her bumpy flight.

Apparently a male American Kestrel lives in the neighborhood and wasn’t too happy with her arrival! She was up on a rooftop for quite awhile (about an hour) when she decided to fly North.  We located her on the top of a building at Jay St. and Frankfurt St. – we tried to tell her that she was going the wrong way – the Kodak tower was in the other direction!

She stayed there for a short time until she heard one of the other juveniles kak-ing on the tower so she turned herself around and flew to a rooftop a couple of buildings away, but at least this time, she was headed in the right direction!  She found her visit unwelcomed again, this time by a group of house sparrows. She took off again towards State Street and off we went running…..luckily one of the new watchers, Chadwick, was a fast runner! He was able to keep an eye on her as she just barely got over some pine trees and then got enough lift to get over State St. and on to a rooftop antenna (go figure!) on the corner of State St. and Brown St…..she certainly was on a quest in those 2 hours and I enjoyed every minute of it!!

It was a very eventful 2 1/2 hours.  Lots and lots of flying by Mariah, Kaver and three young fledglings.  While Seneca still lingers in the nest box and Quest still runs around the playpen strengthening her wing muscles, Diamante gave flying a try.

All day, we wondered where Diamante was.  We could only count four eyases on the tower.  Did he fledge?  Was he hunkered down somewhere, snoozing?  I believe that he did fledge early that day, as reported by Dan S.  A very short flight out of the playpen and back on. 

At 5:30 p.m., we finally saw all five eyases/fledglings!  Yes!  Seneca in the nest box, Quest in the playpen, Zephyr on the left side of the nest box perch, Susan B on the southwest corner of the 19th floor and (drumroll please!), Diamante was located on the southside 20th floor of the Kodak Tower.  I was so happy to see all five young Falcons.

During my Watch, Susan B finally made it out to the High Falls Stack.  Zephyr followed her and they remained there for quite awhile.

It was a gorgeous evening for once, and I was joined by many Watchers, too numerous to name (because I know I’ll forget someone!).  😉

Tomorrow should be an interesting day.  I’ll bet Quest is ready to be free of her playpen.  She’s ready to fledge and I’m sure Seneca won’t be far behind.

Carol P.

Highlights of my watches today included the year’s first talon tag game and a pair of lunch drops from Kaver.  Read all about it and view the pictures!
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/06/four-talons-two-lunches-and-wings.html

Jim

I was down this afternoon from about 3pm until 5:30 – what a beautiful day with wonderful flying!

Not too much different to report, I wasn’t planning on filing a watch report since I wasn’t signed up for the day, but right before I left we finally had all 5 eyases identified so I want to let people know –

• Zephyr on the ‘dolphins’ (20th floor) ledge on the south side towards the east end
  
• SusanB on the ‘scallops’ (19th floor) top of the railing on the south side, also toward the east end
• Quest in the playpen (big wings!)
• Seneca in the nest box (of course)
• and finally (!) Diamante on the ledge next to the nest box, where I bet he’s been close to all day but he finally showed himself to the watchers when Kaver came flying in with food.

[edit: we now know that it was Diamante on the 20th floor, and Zephyr on the ledge  -sc ]

Yay! All are accounted for, I was glad to see Diamante – even though Mariah and Kaver were calm, it’s still nice to be able to identify all 5.

As for the time that I was down there, Zephyr flew out to the High Falls stack once, walked around the edge a bit and just as I was going to walk out to the bridge to check on him (since he had walked around to the east side of the stack) he flew back to the tower. At that point SusanB had flown a bit and ended up on the ball at the SW corner of the 19th floor (after trying a number of unsuccessful landings – at least she’s practicing on the tower and is smart enough to do a touch-n-go when she can’t land) so Zephyr flew up to the same point one level above her.

SusanB eventually walked her way over to the SE side of the tower along the scalloped railing, while Zephyr eventually ended up above her in about the same place on the 20th floor. With both parents taking short flights around the tower and landing at various points throughout.

Toward 5:30 Mariah came off her perch – Kaver had been gone for a while – and started flying west to meet Kaver as he returned, presumably with food. He was not going to give it to her, however, despite the fact that she chased him around the tower a few times…! I’m not sure if she ever got it, I think that it was Kaver that went in with food but it might have been her – and at that point we saw the wings flapping in the playpen, knew where Z and SB and Seneca were, and finally saw an eyas next to the nest box. Hooray! All accounted for.

Down watching today were (and I hope I don’t leave anyone out): Carrie, Lisa McK, Linda (of the tattoos ), Kat from GVAS, a first time watcher who was very nice and I should remember her name – I think Diane (sorry!), Dawn, Brian, Joyce, and finally Carol P. We were visited by Tom the Kodak guard and Karen and Doc (Roch Mounted Patrol) along with many folks who just stopped by to either ask what we were looking at or knew about the falcons and wondered how they were doing.

Such a great time of the year!!! It was even sunny and sort of warm today, can’t beat it.

susan c

When I arrived, Lisa M was at “Headquarters” and told me about recent events – Seneca still in the nestbox, Quest in the playpen, 2 fledglings seen flying recently, Mariah and Kaver possibly on the north side of the tower. One fledgling was visible perched on the west corner of the slate roof; we thought it looked large enough to be Susan B.

I walked up State Street for a view of the north side. One adult, probably Mariah, was perched by the NW rocket, the other on the north side playpen rail. Both were calmly peering down as if watching a fledgling (or more than one) at a lower level – possibly on the 19th floor ledge.

Back at Headquarters Lisa reported that the fledgling (? Susan B) had flown from the roof peak to the SW corner post of the “dolphin” railing just below the KODAK letters, then fluttered along the west side of the railing, out of sight. Some wing flapping was visible in the playpen.

Around 10:40, both adults came around to the south side, Mariah first to the top of the nestbox, then to the arm of the main camera, and Kaver to the SE rocket.  At around 11:00, Kaver flew toward downtown, apparently hunting.  In the playpen, a large-appearing eyas, probably Quest, traveled back and forth stopping on each floodlight to flap her wings vigorously. Another set of wings was visible periodically,
confirming that at least two youngsters were in the playpen. Dana stopped by and walked around the west side of the building, where she saw the fledgling (? Susan B) lying on top of the dolphin-rail post next to the SW corner, possibly napping. Since Seneca was still in the nestbox, at this point 4 youngsters were definitely
accounted for. Mariah remained calmly perched on the main camera arm.

Dan S arrived by 11:30 and stayed for the rest of my watch. We could see one youngster on the SE floodlight  and one outside the playpen railing beside it. We could not identify them but knew that Diamonte and Zephyr had previously spent considerable time there, with Zephyr on the outside. Nothing else happened until after my watch ended at noon. Then Larry and Shaky arrived, and the fun began! The consensus was that first a fledgling, possibly Zephyr because he flew very well, made 2 loops around the tower and landed on the west side of the playpen railing. Flapping wings were visible in the playpen. Then Kaver arrived with food, which Mariah took and prepared on the east roof peak; she then took it to the nest box, where 2 youngsters were visible. At that point I had to leave. So I’m hoping someone will be posting news of further events!

Lucy A