I decided to head out at 8:00 a.m. for my Watch, since no one was
scheduled until 9:00/9:30 a.m. I met Dan S, Jeanne and Larry O,
sitting near Falcon Watch HQ and received their report of that
morning. All 5 eyases were accounted for, plus Mariah and Kaver.

I was left by myself for awhile, with a quick visit by Jim P. During
the 8-9 a.m. hour all you know what broke loose. Mariah and Kaver took
turns trying to entice the young ones into flight and there were two
takers, Susan B and Zephyr. The sky was full of kakking and wonderful
flying. The eyases on the tower were flapping their wings in support,
with hopes that they would soon join their siblings. At one point
Susan B and Zephyr flew together in play. They are such a joy to watch.

Quest chose that moment to migrate into the playpen, leaving Seneca by
herself in the nest box. Mariah flew in with some food and a little
TLC for her reluctant daughter.

Lisa McK and Linda joined me around 9:00 a.m. and we attempted to find
all five eyases, with no luck. The most we could get was 4 at a time.
Has Diamante fledged? Is he hunkered down in the playpen somewhere.
We’ll keep watching for the 5th. Since Mariah and Kaver aren’t
worried, either am I.

At one point, Kaver was flying around being chased by (we believe)
Susan B. He landed on the peaked metal roof on the west side of the
tower and Susan B eventually joined him, father and very large daughter
sitting side-by-side. It was a Kodak moment! 🙂

I had to leave at 9:30 a.m. but promised to be back at noon, leaving
Lisa, Linda and now Lucy on Watch. I can’t wait! I wouldn’t give this
up for anything. If you live close-by, you should join us. You have
no idea what you’re missing.

Carol P.

I got to see more flying from Zephyr and Susan B on a couple of occasions this morning and afternoon. I’ve compiled pictures and a report for your viewing pleasure:
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/06/more-flying-for-first-fledges.html

Jim

This was a fairly uneventful watch  –  probably the eyases and fledglings were taking their morning naps most of the time!

When I arrived,  Joyce M was already there; she shared the whole watch with me.  It is always so helpful to have additional watchers!  Joyce said she had seen a fledgling walking along the 17th floor.  We did not see her again before noon, but she was later identified as Susan B.   We did see a juvenile, probably Zephyr, make a short flight from the tower and return to it, accompanied by Mariah.   By 10:30 we had located all except Susan B:  one on top of the nest box, one inside it, one on the ledge east of it, and one (presumably Diamante) in the SE corner of the playpen.  Kaver was by the SE rocket and Mariah on the ledge of the arch above the nest box.  

By 11:00 we could see Diamante on the spotlight in the SE corner of the playpen, but the others were back inside the nest box, hardly visible from the ground.   We were glad when Joyce heard on the phone from Barb that Zephyr, Seneca and Quest were in the nestbox, and that  Zephyr was eating the scraps from an earlier food drop.  Kaver had made a short flight and returned to the rim of the cupola.  Mariah had followed him briefly,  then landed on the white pole at the SE corner of the playpen.   I don’t know how she could maintain her balance on such a narrow surface!  After several minutes she moved back to the arch above the nest box.  Kaver chased a turkey vulture, returned to the rocket, then moved to his lily.   At about 11:30,  Mariah and Kaver put on a soaring demonstration.  Soon afterwards, vigorous wing-flapping could be seen, traveling along the south side of the playpen.   Mariah moved to the SE corner of the 19th floor and Kaver returned to the lily.  

At 11:45 Kaver took off toward the south;  Mariah moved to the SE white pole.  Kaver returned and briefly visited the nest box before  landing on camera one.   Just as my watch was ending at noon,  and a whole group of watchers were arriving, a fledgling (probably Zephyr?)  made a quick flight to the east,  followed by Mariah, and looped back to land rather roughly on th rail of the east side of the playpen, then hop down inside the playpen.   It was a pleasant watch even though it was uneventful.

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.