What year did Orville show up at the nestbox? I've got one from 2005, but not sure if that one is Orville and there are five eggs, no birds. I can keep checking though. Could someone tell me if Orville is here though? I should know what he looks like by now, but.......
I don't know if this is anywhere on the rfalconcam forum. I remember reading this in the kfalconcam board.
ORVILLE THE PEREGRINE PEBBLE
It was written by DianaR, Kay, Pam T in VA, Alison in Austria & Elaine K in Grand Rapids
Ahhhhhhh boys and girls! The story I am about to tell you is SO fantastic, you will think it cannot be true. BUT IT IS VERY TRUE!!!
This is a story of a pebble called Orville and his VERY important and special job!
It all began in the spring of 2003, in a town called Rochester, NY, USA.
Orville immediately knew that he was different -- he was surrounded by much smaller and grayer pebbles. He was so much larger that he stood nook and cranny above anyone else in his home.
But Orville had not always lived in a box at the top of the Kodak Office building. He had started out as a pebble at the bottom of a river. That was as far back as he could remember, but he had heard that there was even something before that, something to do with great mountains and then boulders. There were even stories of flowing magma, but that he could hardly believe, even with the recent heat wave, he had not begun to melt. His travel to the top of a skyscraper in Rochester to live with the falcon family was an adventure in itself. He was lying there, enjoying the gentle flow of the water running along his body when a great noise disturbed his meditation. A vast yellow monster came toward him, scooping him up with a great single hand, tumbling him together with his neighbors. He did not so much mind being out in the dry air, but the fall from the hand into a metal container on the shore was a shock. Vaguely he remembered the jostling as a truck carried him far from the river he had called home into a large plant where he was shaken out and came to rest in a bin with other pebbles about his size. A period of darkness followed and after some uncertainty he found himself with his fellows riding an elevator up to the top of the office building and was transported out onto the walkway and deposited upon the floor of the nest box, and told to make like a cliff top. Many of his fellows had decreased in size during the trip and some had gone quite gray with anxiety, but Orville remained large, rounded and colorful, an eyecatcher in every respect. And he did catch Mariah's eye.
Dashed at the speed of light, in an explosion not imaginable to mere mortals, particle became atom, became molecule. Each molecule reached a point at which it fell back again to what man now calls the Sun. Some collected, formed, and orbited around the sun according to its composition. We now call them the planets. One of the planets began to cool and harden into magma, then rock. This was a very special planet which has thee ability to sustain life. No other planet in the universe can do this. Earth is the only one.
The gasses and rocks formed and reformed and vapor became water. The seas were formed. Rivers flowed from the mountains when the rain added water. As the heat and cold broke up the Cambrian rock mass, small rocks formed on land and water. One of these rocks was in a high mountain in the Adirondacks. It fell into the river one rainy spring day and was washed clean and smooth over time. Now it was a pebble.
The fish would leave their eggs on his shiny pink sides. New life! Bits of organic matter fell beside it and the other pebbles. Fish would nudge him as they fed on the organic matter. Slowly the flowing water pulled him further downstream.
One day a little boy noticed the pebble. He waded out to the shallow stream and picked it up “Hey Dad, look at this one. It’s pink, and it’s bigger than the other pebbles.” He put the pebble in his pocket to take home with him.
His father was very wise and explained to him that if he took it home, no one else would be able to enjoy the pebble. Soon the boy realized that a pebble so special should be enjoyed by everyone, not only himself. So they took a picture of the pebble (with a Kodak DX4900) and replaced it by the side of the stream.
In late fall, a truck came along and used their equipment to dig up pebbles to sell to people in the towns for pavements and gardens. The pebble was taken to Rochester where a very nice man from Kodak found it while searching for nesting material for the Kodak falcons. He carefully placed the pebble along with many others he had gathered into the nestbox high atop the Kodak tower. Mariah laid her eggs on his shiny, pink sides. New life! Bits of organic matter were again dropped on and around it. Later the rain washed it clean again.
As people watched Mariah and Kaver’s eggs become eyases and fledges leaving the nestbox, they noticed the pebble. “It’s pink and bigger than the rest. What a lovely pebble. Let’s call it Orville”, they said. It seemed lonely in the nestbox after the falcons left. But it wasn’t. Everyone knew what Mariah and Kaver would soon be back to start another brood with Orville there to help.
Orville, being bigger than his fellow pebbles, caught the attention of a fierce falcon named Mariah. Mariah was pushing the pebbles around, making a place for her eggs. Orville was so big, even Mariah thought he might be a falcon egg and placed Orville in the nest. This was observed by people watching the nest through cameras. Many got excited thinking that Mariah had started her family. Orville was soon joined by real falcon eggs. They were also pink and smooth, but even bigger than Orville. Orville didn’t mind having brothers and sisters. It meant that he was covered by Mariah and her mate, Kaver, as t hey incubated the eggs. The spring was cold and Orville was glad to be warm and dry instead of cold and covered by snow like the other pebbles.
..... "Gee, if only somebody would roll me into the sun, maybe I'd hatch TOO!"
"Farewell my brothers and sister. I was glad to have been a pillow and part of the Fab 5 Gang, even if only for a while."
"Seeya next year, everybody?"
OT Orville and writers
Yes, Kay, I am a wri.ter - among other things - but unfortunately I'm getting ready for vacation and have several of my newsletters to write and get in place before I leave, plus I am editing a book that a friend is writing, so I can't do anything with The Story of Orville, the Peregrine Pebble, at this time. I looks as if plenty of other people are adding their bit, so the truth about Orville may eventually be told. (He's not part of the Canadian conspiracy that we learned about last year, is he? Or... is he....? Hmmmmm)
