Four Talons, Two Lunches, and Wings

Gray sky is the bane of a falcon photographer's existence. Dialing in exposure compensation can lighten the shot, but the tradeoff is a slower shutter speed that makes for blurry pictures, and lots of digital "noise" in the pictures you do get.

Enough grousing from the shutterbug, though. Plenty of flying and the season's first talon tag made for exciting watching despite the dappled, ashen sky.

Kaver started off my morning with an inveigling flight near the tower that ended with a nice landing on the lily:


With no fledglings or eyases taking Kaver's bait, Mariah made a try, passing close over Susan B:


She flapped a lot but kept her perch. Zephyr, though, turned out to be in a playful mood:
          

After chasing his mother around the sky he decided to harass his sister:


She voiced her displeasure but kept her perch. No matter-- the Z-man bided his time, and when Susan B took a flight a little later, he jumped out, hard on her tail. They ended up in a round of talon tag, the first of the year!
          

They went at it off and on for a few minutes before little Susie settled down. Not so Zephyr, who kept on flying:
          

Mariah took over as Zephyr's playmate while Susan B wandered up and down the south ledge outside the 19^th floor railing:
     

Eventually Zephyr settled down so I went inside to get some work done. I was back out at Noon, though. The light was marginally better, but still not great. Nevertheless, there was flying to be seen. Here's Zephyr making a little circuit before landing on the west side of the playpen:


He took off again when Kaver flew in with food clutched in his bill, chasing his father all the way into the nestbox:
     

Mariah took the morsel almost as soon as Kaver landed:


She absconded with it, landing on the east peak of the Kodak Tower roof for a little mid-day snack:


A few minutes later she was back, dropping off the food at the nestbox before making her getaway:


Seneca & Susan B were the lucky recipients. Quest popped up from the nestbox roof, but didn't go into the scrape to try to get a share:


After lunch Susan B found a spot on the west side of the dolphin railing, so I moved around on the rooftops for a better angle:


It also gave me a good look Mariah, Zephyr and Seneca on the south side:


Kaver set off a flurry of action when he landed on the southeast corner of the playpen with his second lunch drop of the hour! Zephyr leapt from his perch into the playpen, while Diamante angled for the prey from the floodlight:


After dropping the food Kaver withdrew in a nice flight that gave me a good look at his blood-streaked feathers:


He landed on the corner of the launchpad and traded an odd look with the resting Mariah:
     

Susan B crouched down on her railing for a nap and the playpen area was quiet for a while. Looking around, I found a clock that told me the noon hour was drawing to a close. It was a little way off, but that wasn't a problem for my long 400mm lens...


Last year we were spoiled by pretty good weather during fledging week. We haven't been as lucky this year, but there's been a lot of fun flying to watch regardless. We can look forward to clearer skies next week, and hopefully more fledgings too.