Look at those feet!

They sure grew from those tiny taloned feet of a week ago!

How the 3 “orphans� came to be renested...

http://youtu.be/fJxhFeXoh60

As many of you may know by now, yesterday Kathy Clark and I visited 101 Hudson St. After watching the camera for several days since the first and only egg hatched on Wednesday evening, we became more and more concerned for the health of the 5 day old eyas. We also came upon a brood of three young (and healthy) falcons who were displaced (we've called them orphans) from the old Goethals Bridge, which is currently being deconstructed. Knowing that the orphans needed a home, we decided to visit JC and assess the health of the lone eyas, collect the unhatched eggs, and possibly foster in the orphans here.

We first met with Cathy Malok of the Raptor Trust to get the orphan eyases, who came from the Goethals Bridge and were nursed back to health. They were found when a giant steel girder was brought down from the bridge onto a nearby construction area (this was on Monday, May 7). The crew working on the bridge had no idea there was a falcon nest inside the bridge and that there were tiny hatchlings (we believe they hatched around May 5) inside the girder. They were not found until the next day when construction workers heard chirping sounds and acted fast to cut open the steel girder to find out what was inside (the entrance to the girder/nest was from the bottom and it was closed off once lowering it to the ground). Lo and behold there were three hatchlings in there! At that age, without close parental care, the young eyases would not survive, so Kathy directed the environmental staff to put them in a box and keep them warm.

“I don’t know how they survived� said Kathy as she explained the ordeal to colleagues. Kathy arrived at the site in the morning on Tuesday, May 8 and said that they were almost cold to the touch. She picked up the hatchling eyases and gave one to each person standing in the construction office to warm with their hands. Warming them up by hand helped ensure their ultimate survival, along with some tiny bits of food. After that, Kathy met up with Cathy from TRT where they would go to be nourished back to health.
After being under the care of staff at TRT for almost a week, we knew that we had to find another nest to foster them into. That was not easy. We visited many nests throughout New Jersey and checked data for nests already checked. It was impossible to find another nest with few young that were around the same age, except for one: Jersey City. But we were concerned with the overall health of the lone eyas and didn’t want to foster in three (slightly older), very healthy eyases to jeopardize survival of their lone offspring.
In the end, after assessing the health of the JC eyas up close, we decided the foster all three orphan eyases into the JC nest. This would give 41/AX the chance to use her great parental skills to provide for the three young while we help nurse the JC eyas back to health. We hope to foster the JC eyas into another nest but first we have to get him healthy (I say him, but it is hard to tell the sex right now)
These are always tough decisions to make and we know that not everyone is happy that we intervened, but in the scheme of things, we had to act or the lone JC eyas would not have survived, and we wanted to find the best home for the three survivors of the Goethals Bridge demolition. This kind of effort is what brought falcons back to New Jersey, now with a stable population of at least 30 nesting pairs.
We’re appreciative to everyone who has watched this camera over the years and supported our efforts to keep NJ’s oldest streaming wildlife focused camera online. We are tentatively planning to band the three orphans at 101 Hudson St. on May 29. We may or may not stream live, but either way we will be shooting video to share with you later.
May 10

http://www.conservewildlifenj.org/education/falconcam/

Chaos just pulled out half an egg shell!  I think we has a hatch for her and Stormin!!!

       

                                       

Caught a very small feeding..little guy didn’t get anything, that I saw.

Saw this video on BCAW today.  Juliet too stressed with this change?

http://youtu.be/b2OKZ0k8Efs

Two little fluffy for Eve and Eole... next to come

       

           

They are all snuggled together now...very sweet.  So glad they found a good home for them.

Good news!

“I’ve got my eye on you.�

Back home now...too tired.  This could go on for days as we know.  When I left Aria was doing her usual circling the nest tower and taunting Darcy .

Earlier Lucky brought Darcy food and she was eating and so I went out to check thinking it would be quiet.  Of course by the time I got downstairs all three were in the air.  Lucky for some reason went to get more food and he gave it to Aria - which freaked me out and both of them I think because they both kind of hovered in the air like 'you gave me food?' and 'oh crap wrong female' and me on the street going 'what the heck was that?' - they did an actual flip in the air food exchange right above me.  Maybe he was trying to give her food to get her to go away?  Well Darcy lost her mind and went into full attack mode on Aria - a decapitated pigeon went flying down to the ground in front of the Subway across the street as she had to let it go.  At one point they locked talons and did one spin and both let go.  Then Lucky started chasing Aria...it was a bizarre encounter.  

I don't know what the girl is thinking..honestly I don't.  I guess I don't understand why she thinks she has a chance?  With Cadence it was obvious as she seriously injured the resident female but this is not the same scenario and I fear for her but I"m not a falcon so maybe I"m missing the obvious.  I guess if you're in the territory flying around like you own it - that's a weakness.

I've notified security, the building management, many of the condo people are aware of what's going on as are the local stores/restaurants across the streets due to Darcy's constant yelling and Aria's kacking.  So hopefully if anything bad does happen we're covered and they know who to call and what to do.

       

It looks like two girls and a boy to me, too. But then again, that's what I said about 2015's trio, and it turned out to be two boys and a girl. Genesee was a big boy.

I’ve thought the same, Pat.

Feeding the orphans - in high definition.

http://youtu.be/PHi0pFHhRWQ

That one eyas is really tiny compared to the other 2!

My goodness, it seems Cadence and Allen have the most stable nest site in the area right now. Who'd have thunk that?

I know! 

Apparently the NJ baby hasn't been well the past 2 days so good they gave them some fosters.

Saw on BCAW

Ben Wurst Mod • 4 minutes ago

Hey all, as you can see there are now three 10-11 day old eyases in the nestbox. After assessing the health of the lone JC eyas, which was not good for a five day old, we decided to keep him for further evaluation/treatment and then we will foster him into another nest with young that are around the same age. The decision to do this was the best option for this nest and the orphaned young (who were from a nest that was found during construction on the Goethals Bridge). We'll be writing up the full story in a lengthy nestbox news entry later this week. Thank you all for the support!

I saw only 3 moves from the cooler to the igloo (how ironic is that?), but that 3rd scoop may have been a bird in each hand.

That’s all I saw too, Paul. Jersey City has 2 fosters plus their one hatch so maybe from another scrape?