Morning Fun For Fledglings

Falcons are usually active in the early morning and late evening. For adults, that's when their prey are often on the wing, so it makes sense. For the fledglings, these times provide plenty of light, but lack the daytime heat. I also think that, just like us wingless humans, they're restive after a night's sleep.

So mornings are good times to watch the fledglings. That's no surprise to anyone who's followed my blog or the falcons for the last few years. Yesterday morning turned out to be great, and today was, well, fabulous. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

With the falcons still young in their flying careers, they stick close to the Kodak tower, so the best viewing spots are on the roofs of the various buildings that surround the tower. I'm fortunate in the extreme to have access to the roofs, thanks to my status as a Kodak employee. Today I went right up to the roof of Building 9, which lies to the south of the tower. As usual, my first task was to take Peregrine roll-call, locating as many of them as I could.

A few were apparent on the tower as soon as I stepped out of the stairwell. Quest was the first fledgling I spotted, on the southeast corner of the 16^th floor, with Kaver a couple of floors above:
     

Much closer, and a surprise to me, was this fledgling sitting on one of the built-up areas of Bldg 9:

Without seeing a band I couldn't make an ID, but it looked like a male by size. It wasn't concerned with my presence-- I was about 40 feet (12 meters) away, so maybe I was outside of his "danger zone". Mariah could see me, up on the lilies at the top of the Kodak Tower's spire, but she didn't come after me as she had the day before, so I guess I was far enough away from her youngling.

Cautiously I continued my survey. I found another female on the top of the Dolphin Railing above the 19^th floor, but she wasn't showing a band either. Her head was kind of dark, though...


I didn't see any other fledglings. For a few minutes I just watched the three in view. Finallly the young tiercel decided he'd rather be somewhere else and off he went. I got a good look at Zephyr's band as he did:


That drew a reaction from the female on the dolphin rail, and when she started flapping, I was able to confirm my suspicion that, yes, this was indeed Seneca!

Out of the five fledglings, Seneca has the darkest features-- inherited no doubt from her father. I was hoping she'd break into a flight of her own, but she only ran and hopped along the top of the railing. No worries though-- I was just glad to see that she'd flown, finally leaving the nestbox.

Since the Z-man had flown west, I headed over to Building 16, which has a good view of both the south and west sides of the tower. I found him in the air (not surprisingly), coursing in front of the tower before running off to join in some talon tag and chasing:
     

     

I think this was Zephyr and Diamante, becuase at one point they were joined by a third, larger fledgling. I wasn't able to frame all three together, and with the sun low in the east, I was shooting silhouettes. The flights were fast, covering the area both to the north and south of the tower. The chase ended suddenly, and in a most unexpected way, with a pair of the playful Peregrines landing on a nearby ledge:


Even without seeing her band I could tell the female was Susan B. The male wouldn't show me his band, but that wasn't nearly as interesting as what happened next. No sooner had they settled on the ledge, than they began to take turns grooming each other:
     

They stopped for a moment to watch something that had caught their attention, but then got right back to it:
     

I love seeing how the bonds between siblings are expressed by these falcons. In past years we've seen plenty of examples of the fledglings pairing up, or just hanging out together. As their fledging progresses these bonds loosen somewhat, but at this stage they all still seem to really enjoy being together.

Nevertheless, after the grooming was over the male took off, and I got a good look at Diamante's red band:

I admit I'd expected him to be Zephyr, but I was hardly disappointed by being surprised. As soon as he left, Susan B marched over to the edge of the roof, crying all the way:


While moving to get another view of her, I stumbled onto Zephyr, cooling his talons on an old-style aerial antenna:

I actually thought this was Diamante becuase I wasn't able to make out his band color in my binoculars. A still photo makes identifcation easier, and you can just make out the yellow ID band, despite his leg being in shadow.

I grabbed a shot of Susan B from a lower angle. Her acute stare was plenty of proof that she saw my every move:


Keeping a wary eye on her and Mariah, and moving slowly to avoid spooking her, I backed out of sight, and went to see if I could get a better angle on the Z-man. Cooling towers on the top of Bldg 16 gave me enough cover to sneak around for another shot:


A little more cautious stalking got me even closer. Plus, Zephyr looked like he was enjoying a little snooze:


With his right foot tucked up I still couldn't see his colored band. It wasn't until he woke up and began preening (or was he wiping the sleep from his eyes?) that I was actually able to make the ID:


I walked back around to Bldg 9 to check on young Seneca. She continued to hop around on the terra cotta railing:


Kaver made a valiant attempt to coax her into the air, alternating his circling glides with demonstrative wing flaps. It was fascinating to watch him pass back and forth, actuallly showing her how to use her wings:
     

     

She was reluctant to take Kaver's invitation, but not so the Z-man, who rocketed over my right shoulder and stuck a great landing on one of the tower's ledges:
     

But even a flight from her brother wasn't enough, though Seneca did bounce back and forth, covering almost the entire length of the Dolphin rail:


No matter. Zephyr was ready to do enough flying for the two of them. He decided it would be fun to play with Kaver, setting off some of the most dynamic flying that I've photographed.
     

     

With the skill of a World War flying ace, Kaver nosed over into an inverted dive, turning the tables on Zephyr:
     

It came to just about a minute of furious chasing action...
          

     

...before Zephyr finally peeled off. When he did, he flew straight at me, turning at the last moment so closely that my autofocus couldn't lock on:
     

After that incredible flight, I didn't see him emerge from behind any buildings so I went looking for him. I found him perched on the edge of one of the mechanical stations on the roof:


Susan B was on the other end, right where she'd been most of the morning:


I checked my watch. 9:00. Time to start work. But with all the flying that I'd just seen, my desire for more got the better of me. I crossed back to Bldg. 16 where I found Quest looking a bit more active:


Sure enough, she grabbed some air a minute later, flying past Diamante on the northwest corner stair of the 16^th floor before swinging back southward for a landing on the 19^th floor rail:
          

In that short interval, Diamante flew back up to a more prominent perch:


Then in what was possibly the weirdest moment of my watch, little Susie walked over to the edge of the mechanical building she'd been perching on and proceeded to regale me with hungry squawking and wing flapping:
          

As soon as I turned back to Diamante I knew something was up, though I wasn't quite sure what. I learned soon enough though:
          

          

It was a brilliant aerial ambush, snatching food away from Kaver, who had just landed with it! While Diamante claimed his prize, Kaver dropped away, into a nonchalant glide past the tower:
          


Well, it's hard to top that. I waited another couple of minutes, hoping for a flight from Seneca, but when none was forthcoming, I surrendered to work and headed inside. I'm on vacation all next week, and if the flying then is half as good as now, I'll count myself fortunate indeed.