I got there at noon and joined Brian, Marcia, Dan,Mike, Chris and Sue.Kaver was doing a bit of flying trying to get the GALS started. Mariah was on the 11th floor. Brian and Marcia were showing the “new watchers” where they all were.

12:25 two juvies flew off the tower and Mariah joined in. They flew around the tower then took a rest.

12:35 another flight circling the tower. Grace made a great landing on the play pen rail. Mariah took flight over Frontier Field.

1:00 two juvies took flight played a short game of talon tag then landed on the 16th floor.

1:10 Kaver did some flying with one of the GALS. He wanted to sit on the lilies and she chased him off twice….poor Kaver…no rest.

2:00 All quiet at the tower. Carol P and Kelly came back to watch
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2:20 Mariah again took flight trying to get the flying again. There was a lot of Kak…Kak…Kakking but the GALS stayed put.

3:00 My watch was over. Leaving them all in good hands of fellow watchers. As I drove past the watchers I called out, “whatja looking at”…LOL

Marcia was taking pictures…hope she posts what we saw.

ginha

I stopped down this morning for a couple of hours. I did get a series of shots of Sacajawea flying though. Initially, I had thought this was Ananta because the band looked silver in my camera viewfinder, however,
after downloading the pis on my PC, I saw that the band was yellow.

Here are the pics. Just wanted to share…

Lou

This morningÂ’s fledgling started at 6:00 a.m. with an update from Dan, he started watching at 5:00 a.m. Dan reported that Linn was still on the lower window ledge when he arrived. Just before 6:00 she flew over the Kodak visitor parking lot and landed on the High Falls Office building. Then she proceeded to land nicely on a rusty pipe on the BeeBee Station, before flying to building 10, north of Kodak Tower. Dan reported that two fledglings had already been fed, but Mariah made them work for there food. Holding the prey just out of their reach until then had flown adequately for her to let them eat.

When I arrived at 6:00 a.m. we could see two fledglings on the northeast corner of building 10 and one at the peak of the roof of building 10. Soon Kathy O. arrived and reported that there were actually three fledglings on the northeast corner. About 15 minutes later Mariah flew right past the four fledglings with prey clutched in her talons. Sacajawea wasted no time in following mom to the south side of Kodak tower. She is rewarded with the prey Mariah was carrying. Sacajawea spent almost a half hour eating breakfast with some Kakking in between. Apparently she was upset at having to clean her own prey. At one point she had feathers stuck in her beak.
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Unofficial Fledge Watch Report – Saturday June 23 1-5 p.m.

Having received a call about some problems with Linn’s first flights, I took the 1:00 – 5:00 p.m. Fledge Watch. Upon arriving I was updated on the situation. Linn was on a window ledge on Kodak Tower about 3-4 floors off the ground– a higher level than the patio area (ground level) she had been on after an unsuccessful flight toward the smokestack and back to Kodak Tower. It was also thought that one fledgling, possibly Sacajawea had gone down the center smokestack. The other two fledglings– later identified as Grace and Ananta– were at the top of the center smokestack.

Early during the watch Mariah and Kaver signaled an intruder alert and where off to vanquish a Red-Tailed Hawk that made the mistake of entering the “no fly zone” around Kodak Tower. Eventually the two fledglings on top of the center stack took off. Grace flew to the 16th floor on the south side of Kodak Tower. Ananta flew around to the north side, apparently landing on the roof of a lower building. Two other watchers, Brian and Kevin, headed to the north side to look for her. Meanwhile, Linn remained on the ledge of the lower window. Mariah was perched on the southeast corner of the 13th floor and Kaver was perched near the main camera. Sacajawea was still missing in action.
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Here are some pictures to support the official report of Lynn’s fledge flight this morning. She landed on the ground after some rather typical, clumsy landing attempts. Having a juvie on the ground is always a concern to the watchers. But she was just fine.

Lou

Our first watch of the year. Several other watchers were already there when we arrived which helped us locate Kaver, on the catwalk on the center smoke stack; Mariah, on the Kodak building; 2 of the fledglings, on the building south of the Kodak building; and a third fledgling on the Kodak building. We later learned this was Linn. We could hear the fourth fledging on one of the buildings north of the Kodak building.

At around 8:15 Linn flew from the building (apparently her second flight!) and landed back on the side of Kodak building. After holding on for a short while flapping her wings she flew again this time landing on a ledge.
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When I arrived, chairs were lined up facing the tower. Susan C, Jim P, Carol P, and Jeanne were on watch. Others that showed up during my watch: Paul R (newbie), Barb, Brian H, Larry O, Claudia and her daughter.

It was a quiet watch, nothing heart-pounding or nerve racking. Sacajawea was on Building 9 roof (south/left of the tower). Grace was on the 11th floor window ledge south side. I was told two juvies (Linn and Ananta) were in the playpen. At 2:15, Sacajawea flew from the roof to the 11th floor window ledge at the opposite end from Grace. Mariah and Kaver were on the Tower.
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Larry O’Heron provided a great minute by minute account for this morning. I’ve posted pictures from the morning and afternoon activity here.

Flights, Fights & Frights

While reading the report, one thing that I want to stress is how easy it is for a juvie to be visible and then not visible. They flatten out, walk in, fly away, etc. Unless you are watching them at the precise moment, it is easy to lose track of who is where. Also, using binoculars can be a disadvantage because your field of vision narrows, but without binocs, some details of the activity are missed. It’s a 50/50 chance, whichever way you go.

5:00 am (From Dan and Jeanne): Grace went down the north [smoke]stack, but pretty quickly came out the bottom and flew off towards the north. Sacajawea was on the 16th floor of Kodak, but had since disappeared.
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One of the exciting times of falcon watching is the first fledge flights of the juveniles. It’s filled with awkward landing attempts, sometimes on low structures enabling one to get a first good close up picture after leaving the nest. Here are a few pics from this evening’s fledglings, Sacajawea and Ananta. There isn’t a lot of meat in the photo titles so see the watch report for full details.

Lou