First Fledge! Wednesday, 6/18/08, 7-8AM
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
