That's the sound of a vuvuzela.
Idea being, it blocks out anything you might want to hear.

from wikipedia: "The constant use of vuvuzelas during the World Cup introduced problems and criticism that resulted in the pursuit of solutions to communication difficulties and health concerns. ...Broadcasting organisations... experienced difficulties hearing the commentators' voices as they were drowned by the sound. Viewers heard only the sounds of the vuvuzelas."

Hey dale!  They didn't get stitched up in time...look at the flying fluff!

awwwww....see?....what a mess.

ginha

Nice tail! Keep it up!!

Doesn't it seem like this setup is just wonderful for fledging? Look at how well and long they used all that multileveled space to practice and develop skills; then when they do fly a bit farther off, it's not unimaginable to drop right back in for lunch. Of course maybe those on the ground saw more discombobulation (more, that is, than their usual discombobulation when simply walking)...

dale

Great video, Paul!  What a strange and terrific place to falconwatch and film. The cavelike echo of the kakking and the theatrical light, both direct and reflected from the moving water, make for a really different atmosphere...thanks so much for sharing it!   dale

for those who were not aware of it, for a limited time only, under ALL (yes, ALL) youtube videos, on the bar where volume and other controls live, you will find a small button with a picture of a soccer ball.

dale

Yarak mans the cams.

then who cans the yams?    dale

Bruce

Well, a shout-out to Bruce, too, and to our main man, who pans those yams.
He's got a new fan!!

Yarak mans the cams.

then who cans the yams?

dale

I may have missed this information and everyone knows but me, but what noble souls are at the cam controls tracking these feathered crocodiles as they stumble/gallop/waddle around like drunken cockroaches?

kudos to the camerapersons!

dale

You know, this seems like it must be great for them - look at all the control they can develop, jumping, hopping up and down and back and forth, short flights - before a real fledge! They're relaly using it, too! It's ALL a playpen for them!

parts of them are flying around already, that's for sure!
I've never been as close to a proto-fledgling as the cams take me, and I keep wanting to sneeze.
I'm blown away when one preens and pulls her head out from under her wing with a HUGE clump of down stuck on her beak, and then just spaces out like that. Someone ought to shake them both off well, then find all the holes and busted seams and stitch them up before ALL the stuffing comes out! What a mess.

note: that cam in Donna's post is not at the Uptown but at UIC (University of Illinois).

Stephanie Ware's site, http://peregrines.erinyes.org/, though not recently updated, gives a good picture of Chicago's umpteen falcon scrapes. It's quite an extensive website. She works at the Field Museum with Mary Hennen. As for Uptown, g/g and Zoom are still nesting there: Stephanie's site reported in mid-May:
Chicago, Uptown Theater
Adult Female: Zoom (b/r *4/H), 1997, North Central Life, St. Paul, MN (10th year)
Adult Male: “Guy� (unnamed) (b/g G/G), 2001, NIPSCO Schahfer Plant, Wheatfield, IN (8th year)
Total young produced at site: 27.
10th year for this site.

An Uptown Theater page reported in June that:

"Mary reported ...that there are two male chicks ...about 25 to 28 days old. One was named Lord Stanley in honor of the Blackhawks and the other Rudy, after the late vaudevillian Rudy Horn, who lived in Uptown and recalled the theatre's colorful past."

I drive past there every other day or so and sometimes see falcons flying, but have not had time to watch there. It's only a couple of miles from where I live, but Evanston is a bit closer.

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

Thanks, Marcia! Some terrific shots of Beauty, and BOY does that architecture work well with falcons! You photographers got really lucky with that!

I did once run into a discussion on the internet on the topic of "red" vs. "natural" sugar water for the hummer feeders, and daresay I did note a rather high degree of "ire" as you call it (panties on both sides were in great knottedness). Your solution seems practical, cheap and defensive.

Callidora is sleeping like an adult.

Yeah, but does Jemison pee standing up, is what I want to know.