I'm pretty sure that they are actually Mississippi Kites.  They build stick nests in trees and are very territorial. They are smaller, slower, and have smaller talons than do peregrines, and feed mostly on flying insects.  Much better, I think, to be hit with.

Paul

Wow!  I'm stunned -- what a great trip. 

Thanks for posting these pictures.

Paul

Thanks for the photo and video, Bonnie!
In particular, thevideo gave me a muchj better sense of where she came from.

Bonnie - wonder whether anyone named V/0.

Paul

Thanks, Bobbie!  Great picture!
Interesting that osprey often return to the nest after fledging, unlike peregrines, who usually don't.  Maybe the fact that osprey have an actual nest has somethiing to do with it.

Paul

My falcon has been found!  Barbara Loucks just looked up the data for me.  There was some confusion because the 0 (zero) is recorded as sidewise, something that is not obvious, as the character appears to be a perfect circle in my photos.

Black over red, V/0 (zero)  both sideways on left leg, 1687-01120  on right leg,  was one of two young banded in NYC at the Throgs Neck Bridge on 5/17/2004 by Chris Nadareski (NYC DEP, a cooperator with NYS DEC). The Throgs Neck Bridge is one of the two bridges in NYC where the peregrines first returned to nest in 1983 after a long absence from the state. It's produced more young over the years than any other site. 

Any further info on her would be appreciated.

Paul

Back in  2008, Baron Von Pefa interviewed one in the course of a crime investigation.

Paul

And the Rochester falcon watchers will be jumping too!!!

Yes.  And then, in about three weeks - fledge!

Paul

I seems there are two types of peregrine broods -- those who return to the nest scrape, and those that do not.

Paul

http://youtu.be/mbLIZQB17-4

The first one flies off and the remainder seem awestruck. Shortly afterward, two more, shaving seen that this is possible, follow suit.

Paul

V/0 flew over to check me out.  Her daughter was pancaked on a bridge support. Based upon the position of the support, it appears that she must have fledged.  I further suspect from the behavior of both parents that their son was similarly zonked out in the nestbox. 

It was a hot morning with all falcons quite inactive. 

Paul

As I emerged from the brush into the area beneath the bridge, the male immediately left his post on top of the nest box and flew to a girder over my head.  There he sat, kakking, until he evidently decided that I was no threat, and returned to his family far away over the water. 

About an hour later, I looked up to see a male falcon soaring toward the rock I was watching from.  He circled about 40 feet over my head and continued on to one of the bridge piers on the far Virginia shore.  That's the male's favorite guard post.  His mate posts herself on the Maryland side and the two of them make me think of the paws of a huge, otherwise invisible beast.  Imagine my surprise when my binoculars showed me it was his son, now clearly a fledgeling.

His sister was doing a lot of wing flapping, so I decided she was still unfledged. I did observe that she flew a short distance into the nest box, rather than just jumping, so I think she is ready to go also.

Paul

Good going, Janet!

Paul

Zoom in on the egg here.  What do you think?


Paul

This makes my day! 

Murray Shields   19 June 20:28
Late afternoon report from Don Mills. All was well at feeding time around 5:30. Mira had been missing most of the afternoon, but she came flying in much to me & Mark's relief. We think she was zonked out on a ledge on the west side of 220.   

My local fledgelings are like that, too.  A couple of heroic flights, a few dangers avoided, and they land somewhere and pancake, regressing to two week old chicks.    Glad to hear all three are doing well.

Paul