Feeding Fledglings & an Ungraceful Landing

I showed up early Thursday morning to see if I could catch any flying before I went to work. Unfortunately, though I arrived around 7:30AM, I missed all the action, which was nicely reported in Larry O'Heron's Fledge Watch report published at Imprints. A consolation prize of sorts was Sacajawea, perched on the stair tower behind the High Falls office building, which sits across Mill Street from the Kodak visitor parking lot:


I went out onto the Pont de Rennes bridge where I found fellow watchers "Mr. Bird Nerd" Mike, and Paul Reinhart. I got a reverse angle shot of Sacajawea...


And also found a second fledgling on the lip of the middle RGE smokestack:


We waited for some action, but none was forthcoming so I left around 8:30 to begin my work day.

New watcher Kathy Alianell reported on Mariah's very impressive stoop on a pigeon over State Street. As it happened, I was walking up the sidewalk on Morrie Silver Way just as Mariah was executing her hunt. I caught her carrying the prey up to the southeast corner of Building 9:


She dropped off the food and two of the fledglings converged for brunch. Ananta missed the meal, and she chased her mother a while before settling on the 17^th floor of the Kodak tower:
          

The fourth fledgling, who may have been Grace, was sitting on a window sill nearby:


Both of the girls were loudly protesting their lack of food while the luckier pair made quick work of denuding the pigeon:


I went up to the roof of Building 9, hoping to get a clear picture of the feeding falcons by cracking the door and sticking my camera lens out, but when I got there the fledglings had left, taking their food with them. The couldn't have gone far, though, because Mariah had assumed sentry duty:


I took a different exit onto the west side of the roof so that Mariah was hidden from my view (and I from hers). One of the fledglings was in the air, and Mariah must have decided to fly too, because I caught her circling near the tower:


Two fledglings began chasing each other, flying low over the building so that they were often out of my view. I caught up with Grace as she flew toward the tower, headed for a landing on another window sill, or so it seemed. You can imagine my surprise when she misjudged it rather badly:
     

Her gaffe was short-lived, and she recovered neatly enough:
     

In the afternoon I took a walk toward the bridge again. Almost as soon as my foot hit the sidewalk I heard loud kacking above me. It was Grace, with a bit of food grasped securely in her talons:
     

Perhaps it had been brought by Kaver, because he was flying over the visitor parking lot too:


Grace landed on the middle smokestack's catwalk where she tore into her afternoon meal:


I headed home then, escaping the heavy humid air. Friday promises more pleasant weather by far, so I plan on getting an early start.