Fledglings Spend a Day Slacking

The fledglings spent the day doing, well, not too much, really. It seemed like they'd all taken lazy pills. I was out this morning, at lunchtime, and again in the afternoon, and with few exceptions, I found very little activity

The first thing I saw shortly before 8AM was a pair of fledglings on the High Falls Smokestack.

The one on the right turned out to be Quest. I think that's Zephyr on the left.

While I was scanning the tower I missed Quest's flight over to the tower. She landed on the southeast corner of the 17^th floor ledge:


There she joined her sister Susan B, who perched one floor below:


I went around to get a look at the north side of the tower, and found both Kaver and Mariah:
     

I thought maybe I'd find one of the fledglings on the "back" side of the tower since both adults were there, but the only one I found was young Seneca, still up in the playpen:


With no action in the offing, I headed in to get some work done for the morning. I popped out a little later, and found little Suzie right where I'd left her:


Kaver had moved up to his hunting lily:


I also had a close encounter with Zephyr. I was just about to go out onto the roof of Building 9, when I saw this out of the window of the stairwell door:


The window was not very clean, so the picture's a bit fuzzy. It looks like Zephyr had enjoyed a bath of some sort, though I couldn't say where.

To avoid disturbing him, I shot my pictures from inside, then went around to a different roof exit. By the time I'd gotten outside he'd left, but as it turned out, he was nearby. I grabbed a few shots just as he made a landing on the Kodak tower:
     

A little later, Quest decided to fly in too:
     

     

She landed on the west side of the tower, near the playpen it appeared, though I couldn't see exactly where. As I checked the tower again, I wasn't surprised to see Susan B on her 16^th floor ledge. She'd apparently attracted some attention from inside the building too:


Recognize the photographer in the window? It's Tom Hoehn, former manager of the Kodak Birdcam, taking the opportunity to get a close-up shot of Susan B.

My trips outside at lunchtime and later in the afternoon were unremarkable in the extreme. No flying, and little movement from fledglings or adults. I heard that things picked up later this evening, but I wasn't able to be downtown to catch the activity. I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow. I'm looking forward to seeing these birds really get flying!