One of the fledgling Eastern Screech Owls visited our yard again a couple of nights ago.  I followed it as it flitted from tree to tree in the neighborhood and managed to get a few moderately clear photos.

http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/06/more-screech-owlet-pictures.html

She's in view on Cam 1 now...

Both in the nest box now.  Looks like they're down for the count tonight.

that flapping on the edge can go on for hours. during my watches it made me crazy

Yeah, and then one time they jump into the air and just like that, they've fledged.  Those are heart stoppers!

What got my  pounding was when the Cam was panning around looking for Jemison!

In the old days when we did all that panning around it was just the operator who was sweating.  The viewers just saw still pics from the search at one-minute intervals.  Now we can all sweat together.

I never know when it is time to stop calling them eyases either.  I aways think of eyases as white fluff balls, fledglings after they've flown off the nesting area, and Juvies when they are are flying well before they leave the territory.  So what are they called now when most of their dark feathers are in, but haven't flown yet?  I've started calling them youngsters, because they aren't babies/eyases anymore.

Technically they're eyases until they fledge, after which they are, appropriately enough, fledglings.

USGS reports a 5.5 magnitude quake north of Ottowa, Ontario.  It affected most of New York and into Vermont:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Quakes/us2010xwa7.php#details

My whole house shook including the file cabinet

Yep, reports from Spencerport to Fairport coming in of the tremor.  USGS says it originated in Lake Champlain and affected most of New York, parts of Vermont and perhaps Canada as well.

WOW.

So much for the nice safe ramp 

Well, she's actually on the top of a 7 foot high wall in those pictures.  The floor of the alcove is where the ramp leads.  She hasn't decided to go down there just yet, but if she does she'll be able to climb back up using the ramp.

Carol P. just tweeted...

WanderingFalcon  (Carol P.): J is ok. She's on NE end of ledge same level as nestbox.

Yep, she was on the north side wall of the alcove when I left downtown.  Here's a couple of pics of Jemison, our little wall-crawler...

Nice, as always!

Here's my non-fledge falcon watch report from noontime yesterday, including a little surprise at sundown.

http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/06/pre-fledge-flapping-and-owl-spotting.html

Just a thought...
For next year, would some extra gravel help on the balcony re: pooh?

Maybe, but there aren't any sides on the balcony, so there's nothing to keep gravel from rolling off and falling down to the sidewalk and street below.  Not a good thing when there are people walking around...  There's a lot of time between nesting seasons for the weather to scour the veranda, so I don't think it'll be much of a problem in the long term.

2 separate watches: lunchtime and evening.
Lunchtime: Met Jim P. Highlight was a chase by Archer over the river. At first it seemed confusing because the little bird seemed to be attacking Archer. Could have been my angle of view. The second half was definite tho'. Archer was chasing the little black bird around the sky...

Link:
http://rfalconcam.com/falconwatching/?p=556

That watch report from Larry O'Heron.  I have pics from yesterday to share, just haven't had time to put a blog post together yet.

That would be wonderful!  It's a learning process 

Our original intention was to mount PanCam in one corner of the small alcove to the left of the nest box.  That would have placed it about 10 feet from the nest box and provided a nice wide view.  Unfortunately when we got up there to do the work I discovered that the only masonry drill bit I'd brought was too big for the mounting bolts we were going to use.  The mast that the camera is mounted on wasn't tall enough to see into the nest box, so we had to improvise.  We'd brought a long 2x2 piece of wood that we were going to cut up for spacers, and we had other wood surfaces available in the form of the eyas ramp, along with a full selection of wood bits for my drill.  So we (Carol P and I) decided to mount the camera mast farther forward and use the existing framework supporting the ramp as the mounting point for the mast.  It worked, but left us with a narrower view than we'd like.

It is indeed a learning process (we're learning a lot this year about a great many things!).  After the falcons leave later this summer we'll have time to get out there and optimize the setup.