My watch Monday evening began quietly enough. Mariah was perched on the southeast corner of the Kodak Office building; Kaver was on the playpen rail; Grace was on the east railing of the Philadelphia Tower (a former elevator shaft or fire escape that was added onto the north side of the Kodak Office building); Sacajawea was on a ledge two stories below Grace; Linn and Ananta were near each other on the south and southeast corner of the 17th floor. So they remained until Kaver flew off to hunt at 5:50. Mariah joined him in the air a few minutes later, flying toward the northeast. Ananta flew after her mother, but shortly returned to the 17th floor.

Mariah was “ringing up,” that is, soaring in circles, rising higher and higher in the sky — looking for prey, or Kaver, or both. At 6:05, Ananta flew out around the BeeBee Station smokestacks, around the Kodak tower, then back to 17, next to a loudly kakking Linn. Mariah returned to the tower at the rocket level at the same time.

All remained fairly quiet until about 7:20. Linn, Grace and Ananta all flew to the middle smokestack, as Mariah flew to the east. Between 7:25 and 7:30, Linn flew from the stack to the Philadelphia Tower and back to the High Falls stack. Ananta flew out north of the stacks at 7:35, and appeared to be catching bugs in the air. Sacajawea had been eating something stashed on the Philadelphia Tower since around 7:00; then at 7:40 she flew around the Kodak tower, landing on the roof of Building 10 (Acon’s Peak). For the next half hour or so, there was too much back-and-forth and all-around-the-area flying by the fledglings to document logically. Suffice to say that all four were flying strongly and with complete control, landing gracefully wherever they wished. By 8:15, Kaver had returned to the north stack; Grace, Ananta and Linn were on the middle stack; Sacajawea won on the east side of the 16th floor; and Mariah had somehow sneaked in on the west side of 16, where she was eating something she’d caught.

At 8:35, Mariah carried the remains of her prey over the visitor parking lot, where Ananta flew to take the prey in a nicely executed food exchange. She carried it to the catwalk of the High Falls stack, and Mariah landed on an old block, on the catwalk above Ananta. Linn flew to the block, knocking her mother off, wailing her displeasure at missing out on the food. Mariah flew to the catwalk of the middle stack, maybe thinking her work was done for the night. Ananta ate up, paying her younger sister no mind. That didn’t stop Linn from voicing her opinion though, continuously.

At 9:00, Ananta flew to the 19th floor’s scalloped railing. Grace flew to the south side of the 16th floor, then looped around the visitor lot, finally landing on 17 next to Sacajawea. Linn, still wailing, flew to the center stack catwalk, knocking Mariah from her perch once again. She came right back to the catwalk, but Linn’s unending lament finally got to Mariah.
At 9:07, she stooped low over the visitor lot, nailing a bird on the patio in front of Building 9. She came up with the bird, followed by Kaver (“Got your back, babe.”) Linn, the starving child, flew after them, eventually landing on top of the middle stack. Mariah plucked the prey on the Philadelphia Tower, then delivered it to Linn on the stack.

Food finally quieted the youngest of the fledglings, and everyone was nicely tucked up for the night when I left.

Watchers this evening included Brian H., Carol P., Dawn (who left and later returned with her dog Maggie, a Rottweiler/Chow/I-don’t-know-what-else mix), Leon and Erma (nice scope), Shaky and Carrie, Ellen and Doug, Ron, Lisa McK., Kathy O., Julie, Jim P., Paul, Gary, Barb, Lucy and Wendy (Lucy’s enthusiastic German Shepherd puppy). Altogether, another exciting watch.

Marcia L.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 9:43 PM and is filed under Fledge Watch Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.