I am finally able to report about yesterdays watch. There were some technical difficulties that prevented me from posting last night.

I was greeted with the sound of kakking from multiple fledglings when I arrived at 7:30 a.m. I immediately saw Kaver flying with prey trailing behind him, while Quest was chasing him. Soon they were joined by Zephyr. A food transfer was attempted but Zephyr missed and the prey fell to the ground. Dan retrieved the prey from the ground, which turned out to be a pair of wings connected by bare bones, no meat at all on this specimen.

The early morning watchers, Larry, Jeanne and Dan reported that earlier there was a game of talon tag between Zephyr and Susan B., with both fledglings flying almost to the smokestack and back to the tower.

At 7:40 a.m. Mariah and Kaver were both on the southeast corners of the 16th and 17th floors respectively. Seneca was still in the playpen. Diamante was on building 10, just north of Kodak tower. Quest joined her brother on building 10. Then Zephyr flys around building 9, just south of Kodak tower. He and Mariah engage in a game of chase, until Zephyr calls “time out” and rests for a minute on the northeast corner of the 18th floor. Then he is off again, this time Quest and Mariah join him in a game of talon tag.

After the game had ended and all falcons had returned to the tower and/or surrounding buildings, Mariah and Kaver stoop towards building 9, south of Kodak tower, going after the pigeons that unwisely decided to nest on building 9. Zephyr also comes off the tower and follows Kaver’s lead. Kaver lands on the lilies at the top of the tower and Zephyr continues to circle the tower eventually landing on the playpen railing for a minute.

Quest decides to fly from the tower to the High Falls Smokestack and Zephyr joins her. Mariah starts flying around the tower with food she had stashed on the tower, trying to encourage the others, Susan B. and Seneca to fly. Zephyr follows his mother and lands on the 19th floor south side of the tower. Quest also leaves the smokestack and flies to the “O” of the Kodak sign. Mariah takes the food to the playpen for Seneca.

Well all of the above happened in the first half hour, it was a “wild and crazy” morning. At 8:00 all the watchers had left and I was alone for a short time until Carol P. arrived. Kaver was on the lilies, Mariah above the nest near the southeast rocket; Seneca was still in the playpen. Quest leaves the letter ‘O’ and knocks Kaver off the lilies. Susan B. is seen running around the 19th floor ledge to the north side of the building. Shortly after that Mariah and Susan B. are flying around the building and Susan B. lands on the 16th floor on the south side.

Diamante wakes up from his nap and circles around the tower before landing on the 18th floor east side and disappearing into the railing. Suddenly Mariah flies low over our heads and is joined by Kaver as they soar around the tower. Kakking is heard from the fledglings, but no one joins Mariah or Kaver.

Around 8:30 there was a familiar foul smell, no not the sewer, but a skunk! I did not see the little varmint but I certain could smell him. Not much happened for the next 3.5 hours. Some flights by Mariah and Kaver. There were 2 fledglings on the cupola, Quest and Diamante. Seneca was still in the playpen. Susan B. was camped out on the 16th floor. I eventually found out that Zephyr was in the playpen with Seneca. It was obviously time for a mid-morning nap for everyone.

Around 1:00 Diamante decides to start flying an attempt to land on the lilies, but he is hit by an updraft and floated above the lilies. Next he tried to land on the metal flag at the top of the building. Again the updrafts prevented him from landing. At 1:30 Susan B. was exploring her new hang out, the 16th floor. She ambulated along the south side ledge to the southwest corner. After a half hour on the southwest corner, she walked back to the southeast corner, all the while remaining on the ledge of the 16th floor.

Carol P. and Susan C. joined me for the afternoon watch. Around 2:30 we all hear kakking coming from the tower. Carol yells, “their off.” We watch as Mariah soars around the tower, going higher and higher. Then she circles around to the south and approaching fast, lands on the arch ledge above the nest box. Soon afterwards Kaver returns to the tower.

At 3:15 Kaver takes off and flies around the tower trying to entice Quest to fly. She takes the bait and follows Kaver toward the gorge. Once over the apartment building she circles back to the tower and lands on the east side of the 20th floor. A short time later Quest flies around to the west side of the tower and tries to land on the peak. The updrafts make her unsteady so she leaves and starts flying around the tower. Her brothers who have been MIA all afternoon are intrigued by their sister’s flight and they both escape from the playpen to join Quest in a game of talon tag. After a while Quest tires and lands on the railing at the 20th floor, south side, yet Diamante and Zephyr continue the game of talon tag. After a couple minutes more of talon tag and watching the boys invert themselves to go talon to talon. Both boys fly over to the smokestack. Around 3:40 one of the boys returned to the north side of the tower.

I spent the last hour just observing and not taking notes. When I left at 5:00, Quest was on the 19th floor railing, one of the boys was on the smokestack, the other was on the north side. Susan B. was still camped out on the 16th floor and Seneca was still in the playpen.

Lisa McK.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 6:20 PM 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.