Its been a week or two since we have seen or heard any of the falcons, My buddy in the enxt cube comes in early and saw 4 of them swooping around a few weeks back and then since then, nothing. But today (saturday) I came in to catch up on work and heard one as I crossed the Plaza, Top of the Plaza building has a lit Travelers sign, that is in indvidual letters, and it looked like one was on top of the "R", Once  on the 15th floor I looked accross to the Plaza building and not only was it a falcon on the R but another was on lower part of the S, Would have been a great pic if not for the fact that my Canon rebel with the zoom lense was safely at home, oo well , still good to know they are still doing well. we never really saw Mom and Dad hangin around together like Archer and Beauty so I suspect it was two of the kids.

Oh Yeah, later on a falcon showed and hung around.. We hear them 1-2 times a day, but sightings are fewer, so many places to perch, most hard to see from buildings and street..

I need to track down my building guy, which is not easy, so I can't be sure what the next steps are, But  a guy on the floor copied these photos from the 10-minute archive, this was the 2nd box at this location, so its time for replacment was due..

Pic 1 -At 10:50, the box is there and full of weeds.
 

Pic 2 - At 11:00, the weeds have been pulled and the wooden frame is removed.  Nothing different in the 11:10 shot.

Pic 3 - 11:20, nice close up of shovel and barrels, which are about to be used to take up the remains of the nest. 11:30 was closeup of pants

Pic 4 - 11:40, all evidence of nest is gone.

Well, I spent last week on Vacaction and am slowly catching up, No word on any fledge issues and occasional mornings we hear screeching and the occasionall fly by of multiple falcons. But for the most part they are traveling all over the area. I see our Corp Comm dept posted theBanding day pics, here is the link if you did not notice it, note just one DEP agent does it all, box is right below the window - http://falconcam.travelers.com/photoalbum.html -The children's museum really does not do much anymore, too bad. We actually have a new science center a block away from the box, (the museum is in west hartford), I may wander in the science center and see if they can't get involved somehow, maybe even with a long range camera.  BTW - I vacationed on the Outer Banks and the Pelicans riding the waves in single file is fascinating, as was the the soaring Osprey. 

I now believe most if not all are flying, being 22 stories up and out of camera view makes it hard, the only sightlines to the terrace is from street blocks away, so even if I brought my telephoto lens in it would be mere dots. Over the last few days I have noticed a occasional sighting on the lower terraces and yesterday as I was leaving i heard lots of screeching, which the young ones tend to do during their first flights, Not  sure if its from joy or panic, or both, but they are particularly noisy at first. Then today as I drove in I could see 3-4 soaring around, and looking out my 15th floor window we have had numerous sighting including one with pigeon, most likely Mom unless one of them is a natural.  One of them seemed to be stationed on a antenna across from the tower hours at a time, I assume its Mom, luring the kids to practice from their tower perches.  So sorry no pics, but rest easy, unless you love pigeons

There are more people in Rochester that know about the Hartford Falcons then in Hartford. Birds might as well be on a cliff in the Adirondacks! So if they have problems they are pretty much on their own. Having said that DEP HQ is 2 blocks away. Anyway, Dem Birds been playin me!!! just saw 3 at once, so maybe they are hopping up and down the terraces (the area where they are does three 1-2 ft drops- after which it drops either 20 stories, 10 stories or 2 stories depending on direction) or maybe just hangin out a sight on the south side. Here's the three I just saw, the guy in the right is pacing back and forth, looks like he's thinkin about It!
also, they can fly jump, you can tell one is on top of the Vent in last pic, so hopping terraces is possible

pic three!!!

Following "the fledge" here is always tough, the cameras being limited and the nest nearly impossible to track from other buildings or the street. But I did go thru the 10 minute-interval archives and noted that as of Sunday around noon, all four were still there, and the most in one camera after that was 3 early Monday AM. This morning while watching the live stream I see Mom playing with Camera 2 wire that now hangs loose, only a matter of time before that camera goes dead the way she is pecking at it!  In the background is a sleeping Eyas next to the round corner stone. OKAY, since typing and capturing the first pic, the eyas went out of view, the next archive picture 12 minutes later shows the eyas is up with wings flapping and then Gone?? Did he take off or is he just sleeping behind vent??  Interesting enough Mom is oblivious either way, still fascinated by the dangling wire, Kid flew off?? Yawn
So far today, no other camera shots of Eyas.. could they all be gone??? Mom just bored? I will keep a eye out my window and also at lunch time outside..
Pic 1  - screen shot of mom playing and lump in corner
pic 2 - fledge??
Pic 3 - just mom now..

Kids are no longer walking around, doing a jump fly thing, Mom is doing soaring Demos, Its just a matter of time, Two have no fluff yet, two have some, but not much.. betting by time I return Monday.. two or more will be airborn. Unfortunately can only see streaming feed on internal network here.

For those unaware, tornados rolled across western Mass yesterday late afternoon, CT was under a watch but only had isolated T-storms.  Springfield, the worst hit, is only 30 miles up the road! Lucky for Hartford and the eyas we did not even get a rain storm, once passed just south and another just north. Still as the front passed here all the eyas got off the edge and hunkered down near the wall, such instincts!  Also attched some more feeding time and as well as a early AM shot today showing all four still pacing the ledge!

Shame the epicenter of falcon watching, with legions of fans and high def / multi-angle cameras, is going a eyas-less (sans a miracle re-clutch), Never the less, this year is a banner year for Hartford (we have had our lean years too) and they are rapidly approaching fledging, which with the box location and bad cameras, will most likley once again go undocumented (How do they make that first step of the edge??). I caught the kids hanging around a lot yesterday, today not at all as they are off camera /and/r comatose). One shot is funny, I had just switched to the camera to see one eyas eating some food apparently just dropped of by M or D, When one bolted from background and stole it and ran off.. he eventually shared with all, but I was lucky enough to screen shot the steal..  They are also doing a lot of wings tests flapping around, note one of them has almost zero fluff now,  mostly they just sit on the wall dreaming of flying and pigeons!

This crew is staying on the terrace nicely, Archives from yesterday show all 4 still wandering around, getting bigger by the minute! I have been watching live stream on and off to get a good close up but they tend to avoid the box and walk the perimeter..

close up - certainly not empty, but certainly not full either, guessing it became nonviable and just shrunk from dehydrating, hoping it was the first one that sat for so long and the next two hatch soon!

Some local falcon followers were freaking out about the possibility of one of them "going over" again, so i perused the archives and found that most  if not all returned for the night and then definitely all four had breakfast, every other archived shot from today shows no birds, I am guessing that the area off camera has no puddle but maybe they are just camera shy.

So Mom did get 3 of the 4 back into the box for food, but as soon as lunch was over they headed back out, one did a very impressive wing test, amazing how big the span is already