A lot of us have forgotten that Archer did a great job of incubation. What if one or more eggs had hatched? That likely would have ensured that he had little time for Unity. He was a good father last year and might have been an even better one this year. We might even be comparing him to Kaver.
I had a good falcon summer. I got to experience courtship, egg-laying, and incubation through rfalconcam. Afterwards, I got to experience the post-nesting life of a peregrine pair through the reports by MAK, Carol, and others. I followed Quest, Kendal and Harlequin, and got to see a fuzzball become a falcon. Finally, I spent lots of time with my own pair. Even though they are far more experienced and in a milder climate, they only hatched one out of four, so that there could have been an nest failure here as well.
I missed out on seeing my falcon friends again during Fledge Weekend. With only a single juvenile at my site, I also missed out on talon tag.
I keep thinking of the poetic passage by Glenn Stewart of the SCPBRG, which I have posted before in its entirety:
...The strong and the lucky are the ones that end up on an eyrie ledge, face into the wind. And their annual production of young--their courtship, 33 days of meditative attention to their eggs, and 60 or more days of care and feeding of their young--is a hedge against the spring when they are no longer at that eyrie. So they each get this chance. They push their way out of an eggshell and struggle to hold their head up in a cold world. They grow and they fly. With strength, determination, and a measure of luck, they are out there each day, face into the wind.
I love that phrase. As long as they face into the wind, I'll be there, too. It's the least I can do.
Paul
Thank you so much, Paul. I have tears in my eyes
