Hazy and Humid Doesn't Quite Ground Fledlings

The past two days have brought the first real withering heat of the year. Temperatures in the 90's and high humidity have been typical of past years. So far in 2008 we'd escaped the "dog days of summer", but this week seems to have ushered it in.

Usually the eyases find a nice shady spot on the Kodak tower during the worst of the mid-day heat. Armed with that knowledge, and needing to stick close to Kodak on Monday (I was on duty with the Medical Emergency Response Team), I walked up onto the roof of Building 10.

It's a great place to view the north side of the Kodak tower, and it didn't take me long to locate a couple of the fledglings. On the 16^th floor, tucked into the corner by the Philadelphia tower (an internal fire escape-- one of the first in the country when it was installed by Kodak founder George Eastman) sat Seneca:


Nearby on an external fire escape sat Diamante:


And one floor down, this Mourning Dove(Zenaida macroura) tempted fate:


When the dove took off, so did he! He missed the bird, but passed low over Kodak's Building 15 heading south, then swung around the Kodak tower and rose high into the air over the river:
     

Other than watching Diamante soar higher and higher, there wasn't much to do other than swelter in the hot sticky air. That's just what I did for the next fifteen minutes, until Seneca decided to start moving around:


After a bit of stalking back and forth on the ledge, she too got into the heavy air:
     

I watched her follow her brother's lead, circling on the hot air, rising until she was out of sight. Then I went back into the cool Kodak office to finish my work for the afternoon.

I wasn't able to get out again on Monday, but Tuesday morning I stopped by the bridge before going into the office. I found no falcons, but this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was fishing in the river:


Just before 8:00AM I got what I'd come for as a falcon flew into the gorge, north of the pedestrian bridge:
          

The falcon dove right into a cloud of pigeons and made a spirited chase. We identified Zephyr only when he came in to land on a railing on the High Falls Brewery:
     

While he perched a number of Purple Finches (Carpodacus purpureus) landed on the rail nearby:


Maybe he was bored, or maybe the Z-man just didn't like sharing his rail with the passerines because he was off after only a short rest, tearing up and down the gorge over our heads:
          

He landed on another brewery building, or at least we thought he did, because he disappeared for a time. Carol and I walked down the path toward the observation deck for a better view of the building's roof, but we came up empty until Zephyr decided to show himself one more time:


After a quick flight over the brewery he flipped on his back and dove into the gorge. In the shadows and morning haze, no one saw where he went. I watched for a while longer, but then had to leave to begin work.

No matter. All of the fledglings are being accounted by the watchers on pretty much a daily basis. By now there's no doubt that all are proficient fliers. They've all begun making their first dives and stoops, sometimes getting very close to their targets. I expect it won't be long before someone reports seeing the first successful hunt from one of this year's wonderful brood.