I see that Lisa has posted about Seneca’s first flight.  This is such awesome news!  🙂

Jeanne called me a little after 8:00 a.m. to tell me that Seneca had fledged earlier this morning.  Yay!  I told her I’d be out as soon as possible, since the morning crew had to leave and no one was scheduled after they left.

When I arrived at Watcher’s HQ, Linda was just setting up her chair.  I gave her the good news and we started our Watch.  Seneca was still on the column between the “K” and the “O” on the 20th floor.  There was another fledgling on the east side of the 16th floor and Kaver was on the southeast corner, 18th floor.  Seneca kept running, and hopping and flapping her wings, trying to get Kaver’s attention. No others were in sight.

For the first hour it was fairly quiet.  Both Mariah and Kaver took turns flying around the tower, coaxing their young into flight.  There were a couple of takers.  We had 3 in the air at once, with Seneca watching.  It was getting warm so they all settled down.

Kaver brought in food.  That woke up some of them.  Mariah took off from the tower and attempted to take the food from Kaver.  Kaver had other ideas.  He kept the food and landed on the southeast corner of the 17th floor.  After about a minute of preparation, I saw one of the fledglings come around the tower, walk up to Kaver and snatch the prey.  This is why Mariah wants the food.  She has better control of which fledglings receive the food.  Kaver just gives it over to whichever one takes it.  LOL

Again it was quiet.  Quest had appeared just below Seneca on the 19th floor, southwest corner.  That’s all it took to get Seneca flapping again.  As we watched, Seneca took off and headed towards the High Falls Smoke Stack.  She was coming in too low, so she turned and headed back to the tower.  Seneca attempted to land on top of the peaked metal roof, east of the playpen.  We watched as she clung to the edge and flapped, trying to pull herself up to the peak.  No such luck.  She let go, slid down the metal roof, spread her wings and took flight, again heading for the stacks.  Still low, she turned and headed back to the tower, missed a landing on 17 and flew around to the north side of the tower, where we couldn’t see her land. 

I saw Quest take off and fly around to the northside in search of her sister.  By the time I arrived at the north side, I spotted Seneca sitting up on the 19th floor.  Quest was on the 18th floor, top of the Philadelphia Tower.  They were very close to each other.

It always amazes me when the fledglings seem to support each other.  Linda left and I had to leave at 10:30 a.m.  No other Watchers had shown up, so I walked around the tower on my way.  Kaver was on the lilies, Mariah was on the southwest corner of the 16th floor.  Seneca had made her way to the 19th floor, northwest ledge.  She was now just above Quest, who was snoozing on the philadelphia tower just below her.  There was one fledgling on the 16th floor, westside.  I couldn’t find #4 & #5, but I was sure they were up there snoozing in any shade they couldn find on the tower.

I was very pleased by Seneca’s flight.  I guess waiting longer and taking the time to strengthen her flight muscles was a good thing.  The last of our eyases have fledged.  Let the fun begin!  😉

Carol P.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 10:55 AM and is filed under Fledge Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.