Yup.  See it now, too.  Camera trick. LOL. 

I doubt very much that they put a transmitter on her. Probably camera trick.  She could be carrying a rat. That is a much better explanation.

I can't help it.  Rochester Peregrines and those Kodak folks before and GVAS made me do it.  I had to have my own fledge watch near where I live.  So here goes the Saturday Water St report.  Just bear with me.  Unless you have seen these peregrines fledge for real, you cannot believe the excitement.

Saturday was another interesting day to say the least.  No news is good news.  Just keep saying that over and over.  The building guys did not report that they had to go and grab one from the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial or pick up anyone from the FDR.  Knock on wood here folks.  I said it and it could come true.  But we made it through a few days.  We did see the one still in the scrape, but he is not moving about very much, yet and he still has quite a bit of down.  I don't expect fledging before Monday.  And Jubilee will not leave his side.  She is there constantly.

We saw a fledgling on the Marine Terminal (aka Governor's Island Ferry Terminal) and Rocky made a food drop atop 4 New York Plaza.  So we assume the other two were on 4 New York Plaza.  Quite likely.  If the adults can get them up there, that's where they remain and practice their flying skills.  Dennis and Francois are pretty sure the one at the Governor's Island Ferry Terminal (next to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal) is fledge number 3.  It probably stayed there all day yesterday, during the night and this morning.  Quite another likely happening.

The transmitter will not start giving good data until our Hope moves a bit more out of the area.  So if she is moving atop the buildings, it will look like she is staying in the same place.  Kind of like your GPS.  You have arrived at your destination and it is still a half mile away.

Pics are of Rocky watching over fledgling number 3?


Number 3 at the Governor's Island Ferry Terminal (aka Marine Terminal)


Now tell me if this doesn't look like Jubilee has an antenna too  (totally likely given she doesn't get out of the scrape during banding):

Friday Fledging Update:

First is from Francois Portmann who was there at 5 AM.  The picture following Francois' email is mine and shows the glass and panes that confuse the birds.  And second email is from Dennis Edge who was at Water St shortly after.

From Francois Portmann:

Today, for the 1st time I got to see a peregrine fledge!  Unfortunately, no photos, it all happened as I was arriving on site, camera in the bag.  The 3rd chick took off from the ledge before 6am, escorted by 1 adult and soon the 2nd. They all circled over the water and the fledgling headed back to  the bldg. to land. The ledges below the nest are slanted so he lost is grip and freefell 4-5 floors before getting on the wings. He flew towards 125 broad st and tried to land on the façade, missing its grip and dissapeared behind the trees of the Veterans Memorial.  I think they get confused by the horizontal lines and the glass of the structures, trying to perch on what looks like a beam or ledge.  First I couldn't find it, finally I realized that part has only columns so the first few floors have no walls and that leads to the ramps of the loading docks. He was there 1/2 way down the ramp.  I called security and left 3-4 mins to look for Dennis who was looking for me. As I returned (the bird had already come up to street level by the sidewalk) a maintenance guy was arriving  to "pick it up" with a bucket, not a good idea, it could hurt its wings.  As I'm telling him not to use the bucket a pedestrian passed by, flushed the bird and it flew towards us and FDR.  The "would be rescuer" grabbed my elbow as he took cover behind me. I lost a bit of balance and missed the shot.  I asked what was wrong with him and he almost cried out "I'm scared of birds". Seriously!  Eventually the fledgling ended up on the heliport pad and finally, flew out of sight to the eastern wall of Governor Island Ferry building by 7:15 under the guidance of an adult!  Hope you'll have some luck tomorrow.
  
Francois



Hello Bonnie,

An update on the Peregrine family. I got to the benches at 6:15 this morning and thinking I'm alone on this outing I was unpacking my camera when I heard someone whistle.  It was François on the opposite side of   the FDR Drive and he was making hand motions indicating a fledgling was over there. After walking around and not finding him or the bird I returned to the entrance of the heliport and soon saw him again waving on the opposite side. Then I saw the bird on the pavement by the building just south the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza as shown in the first photo. Soon the bird was flushed by someone and flew head high  between cars across the FDR  to the heliport  landing deck as shown in the second photo. This wasn't good
and we asked staff people if they would flush the bird before helicopters started coming in. The Peregrine then flew accompanied by the adults to a ledge on the water side of the old Governors Island ferry building. We didn't see it again. The bird was fledgling number 3 Which François saw fledge at 5:45 am as he approached the benches. He said it came out and down about 4 floors when swooped up and across the FDR, again accompanied by the 2 adults, before circling around back across the FDR to the plaza. I saw one remaining chick on the perch and we left at 8:30.

See you,
Dennis

These are pictures from Dennis Edge (aka Birdman of Tompkins Square Park)

And from Francois Portmann who was with Dennis Wednesday and Thursday:

http://www.fotoportmann.com/birdblog/2011/06/02/peregrine-falcons-55water-ny

My photographer friends were down this morning and Hope fledged.  Here is the email from Dennis Edge and his pictures.  He gave me permission to post.

Hi Bonnie,
Arrived there at 6:10 to find François already at the bench. One of the limo drivers that park there told him he saw a bird come out of the nest and land on the wall of the stairs that lead to the roof park of the parking garage next 55 Water St. We couldn't go up since a chain blocked the way. But eventually the chick jumped up on the railing of the roof park and we got good views and shots by going the street sidewalk
there. As you can see, it was the female with the transmitter and while we were shooting the chain was removed and people went up the stairs only to flush the bird. It flew just above our heads low and disappeared across the FDR Drive. Our hearts sank thinking it flew onto the drive. We ran around back to the benches to find it and thankfully it had made it over the drive but we did not see it again. We thought maybe it had flown onto the heliport building since both adults were circling above it but we didn't find it. As we left 2 chicks remain at the nest. An exciting, anxious morning.

See you,
Dennis

And hubby thought he was telling me something I didn't already know. He is home for few and watched the news.

Do men have blond moments?  Oops delete that. Please don't respond to this post.

Can't Beauty just keep him at Times Square?  Or Unity just keep him at Kodak Park?  Like one of them just please reign him in!  There must be other tiercels willing to assume paternal duties.

Donna, what is the FB page?

Hope was not injured.  I think Chris Nadereski put it on. The building loves those falcons and so does NYC.  And Hope was named by two service families, so she has a lot of angels looking out for her.  I think she may have followed her brothers today. 

You might want to put this next sentence into the SHOUT BOX!!  The transmitter on Hope, the female, is Skye's.  It was refurbished.  They will put up the link to the tracking site as soon as she starts to fly.  The transmitter is working and is giving really good data.

The first male has fledged and is flying in and out of the scrape.  Apparently, all is going well right now.

Great close up of the transmitter right now.

Hi, KSS  Starting with reply #38 you will get the names, sexes and what has happened during the past three weekends anyway.  As of Tuesday afternoon, there were four in the scrape.  One eyas/fledgling is now perching up on top of the box with the adults.  He has been going up and down.  The birds are ledging and they go down into a well area just below the cameras.  And they go to the west side of the ledge under one cam.  Adults have stashed food there.  The littlest one was not banded because he was too small.  They will definitely be flying by today.  For sure all, but the little guy by the weekend.  Yes, it is always extremely scary to watch them fly for the first time over the FDR.  One of my photog friends should be down today taking pictures.  I'll ask if I can post one or two.  Lots of people want to know how they are doing.

More pictures from the street:

Three in the cam right now.  The one on the box perch is an eyas.  And you can see the littlest one in the left corner.  Another is perched on the ledge watching the helicopters.   The fourth is probably under one of the cameras.