The Tale of the Headless Pigeon

I was greeted by a symphony of kakking from the smokestacks and a headless pigeon in the Kodak Visitor parking lot when I arrived at High Falls around 6:40 p.m. Susan and Brian relayed the story of the dropped food exchange, hence the headless pigeon in the parking lot. Mariah and a fledgling (Grace) were on the catwalk of the center smokestack. Kaver was at the top of the north smokestack, with another fledgling on a pipe at the top of BeeBee Station, later identified as Linn. Ananta was quietly perched on the south east corner of the 17th floor of Kodak Tower. Soon we found the fourth fledgling, Sacajawea, perched on a light pole at the corner of Mills St. & Platt St.

Sacajawea soon became obsessed with the headless pigeon. She swooped down from the street light toward the pigeon on the ground, then back in the air. Sacajawea was so focused on the headless pigeon that she flew into a light pole in the visitor parking lot. She recovered quickly and landed a building on the south east corner of Mills St & Platt St; only to make another attempt at the headless pigeon, just missing a motorcycle that was driving by, ending up on the Plumbing Building to the north of the visitor parking lot.

The next heart stopping moment occurred at 8:00 p.m. Kaver had moved to the High Falls smokestack, when Linn decides she wants to join dad. Just as she reaches the smokestack Kaver flies off heading towards Kodak Tower. Linn decides to follow him, only Kaver goes around the north side of the tower landing on the main camera. Yet Linn crash lands on the 17th floor on the east side of the tower. After a couple of minutes she shakes it off and pops her head up.

The headless pigeon becomes the focus of the watch again. At 8:20 Mariah makes several attempts to pick up the pigeon. Finally she snatches the headless pigeon off the ground and flies toward the pedestrian bridge. In hot pursuit behind her are Ananta, Grace and Sacajawea. We lose sight of all four behind the buildings. Soon Mariah with one fledgling following her reappears near the High Falls smokestack. Brian and I head towards the pedestrian bridge looking for the missing fledglings and the headless pigeon. We find a fledgling on the pedestrian bridge mantling the pigeon. A person walking on the bridge approached the fledgling as if they were going to pet it. Needless to say the fledgling flew and all that was left was the headless pigeon. We returned to the Kodak Visitor parking lot with the pigeon.

At 8:50 Kaver had an unsuccessful stoop over State St. Yet at shortly after 9:00 he stooped again and connected with the prey. Mariah was right behind him and she grabbed it away from Kaver. Again three fledglings were right there chasing Mariah for the food. The fledgling rewarded with the food lands on the High Falls Office building elevator shaft to eat. Mariah and Kaver perch near each other on the center smokestack catwalk. At 9:20 the fledgling that was eating flies to Kodak tower. One of its siblings remains on the High Falls Office building eating the remnants of the prey. At 9:30 the last fledgling flies to Kodak Tower and we had all four fledglings tucked in for the night, with the headless pigeon still in the parking lot.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 at 10:00 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.