I spent much of yesterday out watching the fledglings, with some breaks in between. Official watchers will be sending their reports. Here’s a recap of the day’s events.

Sorry this is so late. I had a late start and there was so much information for me to sort in my little brain. Hope you can understand it!

I arrived at about 4:30 and found Carol P. and Dana watching Sacajawea still clinging to the South side of the Tower. The high winds were a concern as she would make adjustments. I was afraid she would get swept away.

Not until about 5:45 did she take off and found the ledge of the North side of the tower on the 17 floor. She would walk and flap her wings. Mariah seemed to be trying to get to her but the winds were strong and it appeared she was having a tough time getting in between the buildings . Sacajawea continued to walk along the ledge and at one point found food. She finally got to the west corner and disappeared out of sight. We all scrambled. By now so many watchers had arrived, we had it covered :).
(more…)

Apologies for the belated post, I had to rush back into work for a 1:30 meeting and just now got out – I hate it when work gets in the way of watching the falcons!

When I arrived at 10:30, Sacajawea was on the “staircase building”, having landed there sometime this morning. Linn was under the nestbox, Grace was on the north side of the tower on a pillar just below the letters, and Ananta was in the playpen. Mariah was on the north side of the tower on one of the letters watching over both Sacajawea and Grace, with Kaver on the launch pad watching the nestbox and playpen. Watchers included Lisa McK, Dana, and Jim P.

At 10:55 Grace took off and made a nice, even flight (with gliding!) (we actually thought that it was Mariah for a second there), a large loop over us then back to the very top of the cupola above the nestbox – she tried to hold on there at the pointy top, but after a few seconds let go and attempted to land on the ledge at the bottom of the cupola. She was moving a bit too fast for that, so took one more small loop around and successfully landed on the railing of the play pen on the east side.
(more…)

Exciting watch!! Sacajawea completes her second flight and Grace fledges–not once but twice. Sacajawea spent her night on the ledge of the 15th floor of the tower. At 5:45 am she makes her 2nd flight–flying east toward the High Falls smoke stack and circles back landing on the southeast corner of the top of building 10 (adjacent to the Kodak tower). She could be seen walking and hopping along the eastern edge while flapping her wings. Ananta is roaming in the playpen area flapping her wings and disappearing behind the west wall every once in a while only to reappear. At 6:00 am Grace hops onto the main camera and for the next 15 minutes she hopped back and forth to the perch of the nestbox and back onto the main camera.

At 6:20 Linn joins Grace on the main camera. Not much room for flapping wings! Mariah is positioned on the northeast ledge of the 15th floor of the tower keeping and eye on Sacajawea. Kaver is nowhere to be seen. Around the same time Mariah takes off on a stoop diving hard and fast for the gorge. Suddenly, Kaver appears out of the High Falls stack following Mariah on the stoop, also in a fast dive with wings tucked. Mariah returns with a successful catch and lands next to Sacajawea leaving the meal for her.
(more…)

Sacajawea Makes her First Flight

I arrived at 5:00 to see Mariah sitting on the SE launchpad [a flat area above the nest box -ed.], Linn was on the nestbox perch and I saw flapping on the south spotlight in the playpen. The weather was sunny, quite windy and in the 70’s . Mariah, then, flew at full velocity to the south from the tower. She came back with another falcon who she treated very aggressively, circling around and trying to engage. When they both landed on the east side of the tower I realized that it WAS Kaver and that they were fighting over food. Kaver tried to take it to the scrape but Mariah ended up with it and it was fed to the Eyases in the playpen. At 5:40 Mariah and Kaver flew shallow loops in front of the south side of the tower, to entice the Eyases into the air. (more…)

There really isn’t as much to report as I had hoped for – I arrived at 12:30, talked with the other watchers that were there (Carol P, Jeanne, Jim P, Lisa McK, Barb, Dan, Shaky, Carrie, and others that my poor brain can’t recall right now), most of whom left around 1:00. Barb and Dan stayed with me (thank you!), despite the less than desirable weather. It was quite windy and mostly cloudy (and cool), and I was sort of glad to see that there wasn’t much action on the tower; if one of the girls had fledged she would have had a very tough time getting back. It’s funny, since we couldn’t see Linn most of us thought that she had made it down to the playpen to join the other 3 – little did we know that she was resting under the nestbox! What a goof!

After a long while, Dan left, but Barb kept me company for the rest of the afternoon. Around 3 the weather started to brighten, the wind shifted direction a bit, and we realized that moving into the sun was now a better option than it had been. The girls seemed to sense the change as well, flapping a bit but mostly moving from floodlight to floodlight. We did periodically see all 4 girls – at least in part – many times at that point. Kaver left at about 2:45, and was gone for so long that at about 4:15 Mariah took off to the south, but after 15 minutes she returned without food as well. We hadn’t really seen a food exchange or obvious feeding all afternoon. Not to worry, though, those girls are doing just fine! (more…)

Not much activity to report for the hour. Mariah and Kaver did some flying, trying to coax the eyases off the building, but there were no takers. Thick cumulus clouds obscured the sun much of the time and stiff winds kept the weather unexpectedly cool. These are not the best conditions for fledging flights– the eyases will have little enough control when they fly, and strong gusts could prove dangerous.

There was some wing flapping from the trio in the playpen, but not the level of activity that we’d associate with birds on the verge of fledging.

Sabrina fledged on June 19, 2006, so we’re a day past last year’s first fledge. Sabrina was especially adventurous though, and probably a male to boot, so it’s not too surprising that none of this year’s brood have gone yet. Last year, Aura and Rhea Mae fledged on June 23, so I’m guessing we’ll see a flight from one or another of this year’s juvenile falcons in a few days.

I came down this morning expecting to find other fledge watchers, but saw no one until I had to leave at 11:40 (to volunteer at the soup kitchen), so here is my very unofficial report. It was fairly cool and windy, marvelous soaring conditions for experienced flyers. Mariah and Kaver made many short flights, a few loops then back to the tower – they might have been saying, “Look girls, this is how to begin – a short distance, then back home, but please – No Stacks!” I could see one eyas, presumably Linn, on the perch, and in the playpen some wings, often two sets at a time but never all three simultaneously. The calm behavior of the parents indicated all was well. From shortly after 10 until 10:30, everything was very quiet. One parent was on a ledge above the rockets, the other on the last “K” of the Kodak sign. Linn was on the perch and another eyas on the center light in the playpen. Then the short periodic “demo” flights began again. At about 11:00, Kaver chased something very large, a turkey vulture I think. At around 11:30, Linn moved to the ledge at the left side of the nestbox. There were several short hops and bouts of wing flapping visible in the playpen, but no flights.

Sacajawea Gets Watchers’ Hearts Pounding

Dan, Jeanne, Lisa and myself were at the Bru watching Sacajawea exercise on the scrape roof. Earlier at least two times, Mariah and Kaver had been flying back and forth in front of the scrape and giving the eyases training lessons in what falcons can do.

Anyway, thru a combination of sources, we knew that two eyases were in the playpen (Ananta and Grace), Sacajawea was on the roof of the scrape and Linn had perched and then hopped to the side of the scrape.
(more…)

There was an hour of good watching at lunchtime today before some seriously dangerous weather rolled through downtown Rochester. No flights from the fledglings, but Mariah and Kaver put on a bit of a show, while Sacajawea and Linn did some wing flapping. Read all the details and view pictures here.