Cool & Cloudy Can't Keep Peregrines Down

Arriving just after 6:30AM, I was hoping for bright skies, but the sun was dogged by thick banks of clouds for most of the morning. The fledglings were out in force, flying up and down the length of the gorge throughout the morning. I was often not equal to the task of following them, unfortunately. It took me an hour to figure out that I hadn't activated the image stabilizer on my camera lens, an oversight that contributed to a great many unfocused or otherwise blurry images.

The day was far from a washout, though. With so many opportunities, I was bound to get a few good shots. Grace was a reliable subject today. She was the first fledgling I found, and she made herself available for photos on several occasions. Almost as soon as I arrived she flew up the river, landing under the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. I couldn't get much of a picture there, but when she moved to a branch on the east gorge wall, I had better luck:
     

She stayed for less than a minute before taking off for more flying:
     

Her sisters were out too, though it was often hard to tell them apart. No matter, the fun was in the watching:
     

     

A small tangle of branches juts out from the east side of the gorge wall, within twenty feet of the bridge. We like to call it the Portrait Tree, because it makes an excellent spot for taking pictures of the fledglings. Here's Ananta taking her turn:
     

After sitting for a while she took off and chased one of her sisters (Grace, I think) through the gorge. Grace had grabbed a leafy branch from a tree:


She trailed it behind her during the pursuit, eventually landing under the bridge. This time I had a good angle for a picture:


After she left, I joined Lou out on the observation deck. He informed me that Grace had flown in with a bit of food, landing nearly at his feet where he was able to get a number of very flattering shots. She'd left by the time I arrived, but Mariah, sitting nearby, made a nice alternate subject:
     

There was plenty of other activity in the gorge other than flying falcons. The fledglings spent quite a lot of time engaging the dozens of gulls, both in the air and by buzzing them low over the water. Along with the gulls, herons and ducks was this troup of Canada Geese:



Lou and I found this bunny while we were walking back to the bridge from the observation deck:


The falcons were the stars, though. After a short flight, one of them landed on the rocky gorge wall near Kaver, who had found himself a small niche in which to relax:
     

More flying out near the falls brought Dana, Lou and me back to to the deck. My flight pictures didn't turn out very well, but the sun found a rare gap in the clouds and threw a picturesque rainbow in the mist from the High Falls:


We also got a good look at Grace perched on a chain link fence next to the falls:


She took off, headed back toward the bridge...
     

Dana and I followed when she landed with another fledgling on the portrait tree. It's a significant walk back to the bridge though, and by the time we arrived, only Grace remained, peeking out at us from behind a bunch of branches:
     


After she left I began heading back out to the deck, but stopped when I saw a trio of fledglings chasing each other north of the bridge:
     

          

Linn & Grace were certainly involved in the fray. The third might have been Sacajawea, but I couldn't be sure from the pictures. When the fracas broke up, it was Grace who once again grabbed my attention:


One of the relatively few good approach shots I was able to take was this one:


It was Ananta, coming in for a landing on, you guessed it, the Portrait tree:


She stayed only a few seconds before taking off for more chasing with her sisters and a landing on the gorge wall:
     

The highlight of my morning was when Linn flew upriver from the north and landed on the bridge railing! Dana and I worked our Canon cameras as she fought for balance on the rounded steel:
     

She gained her composure after a few mincing steps and some wing flapping, then sat for a few pictures before taking off again:
     

Linn is my favorite of this year's brood. Whether because she's the youngest, or because she's memorializing a wonderful naturalist and Peregrine advocate, Linn Pierson, who passed away this spring, I'm not sure. What I do know is that she seems the most engaging to me, if not the boldest of the fledglings. In any event, I was thrilled to have this opportunity to observe her up close.

Workers began an engineering survey on the Kodak tower this morning. You can see a block of masonry has been removed at the corner of the 19^th floor.


I'm told that there hasn't been much structural maintenance on the building in the last ten years, in part due to Kodak's concern for not disturbing the falcons. Unfortunately, the situation of disrepair has advanced to a point that some work is now inevitable. The good news is that the engineering firm hired to do the assessment have experience working on buildings where falcons and hawks nest, and they delayed their work until the fledglings no longer need the tower as a perch. Today's work was preliminary; the real work gets under way beginning July 16.

Meanwhile, there was more falcon watching to be done. Kaver came off his stony perch, pursued by his daughters. He passed overhead before circling high into the sky:
     

When the girls realized he didn't have any food they left him alone. Grace returned to the Portrait tree one more time, offering an unrivaled view for the many new watchers who had arrived:
     

Grace did some more flying and with the sun finally shining brightly, I was able to catch a handful of good shots:
     

     

I ended my watch around 10:00 with this shot of Kaver flying near the falls:


The girls are progressing fabulously. They're beginning to develop their hunting dives, and they're not shy about flying. It's a great time to be a fledge watcher!

Pleasant Morning, Gorge-ous Afternoon

Lots of flying this morning kept us on our toes. The air was pleasingly cool, even a bit brisk, so I grabbed my jacket from the car. Linn seemed to like it, because she was in the air quite a lot:


Grace landed on Camera 1's mounting arm around 6:40, but she took off again soon:
     

After a spirited chase with Linn and Ananta, they both landed on top of Building 9. Ananta didn't want to stay out of the air for long, though. Linn's askance look as her sister takes off is kind of comical:
     

Linn followed and their chase recommenced:
          

Ananta landed on the corner of Building 9 again:


There was a brief lull in the action, broken when Mariah arrived with food. Sacajawea and Linn leapt into the air, racing for the breakfast:


Sacajawea was the faster, and she flipped over to take the prey from her mother:
     

Linn closed in, but too late:


Her breakfast secured, Sacajawea bulleted toward the center stack's catwalk, Linn close on her tail. Linn landed on the floor of the catwalk while her sister continued toward the rail:
     

She ate a few bites while she balanced on the narrow iron:


Inexplicably she took her meal and flew, making a spectacular landing on the shadowy northwest side of the catwalk:
          

I don't know exactly how it happened, but Linn took off from the catwalk, and when she did she had a morsel of her own in her talons:
     

One of her sisters-- Ananta, I think-- took off in hot pursuit:
          

Their chase went north of the visitor parking lot toward Kodak's Building 10:


Ananta peeled away as they approached the building, but poor Linn continued on, crashing into a window with a solid thump that I heard all the way over by the smokestacks:


She fell, and another building blocked my view. Fearing the worst, I sprinted toward State Street, expecting to find a dazed or injured fledgling on the sidewalk. My trepidation turned to relief when she appeared to the north, heading toward the smokestacks with steady wingbeats, apparently no worse for her collision:
     

She landed on the High Falls stack's catwalk where I believe she enjoyed her breakfast. The action slowed after that, and I headed into the office to get some work done.

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At lunchtime I headed out again. Oddly, I was unable to locate a single fledgling on the Kodak tower, nor did they appear to be perching anywhere on the smokestacks or surrounding buildings. Barbara and I went out on the Pedestrian bridge to look, and met first Cathy D'Angelo and then Dana. Our search from the bridge proved fruitless as well, so we headed back toward Kodak for a look around the north side. We ended up spotting one fledgling apparently napping on the floor of the center stack's catwalk. As more watchers joined in, we saw a couple of them flying out over the gorge, so we decided to head back to the bridge.

Mariah put in an appearance, circling over the bridge near the BeeBee station:


Two fledglings came off the east gorge wall and began a frenetic chase between the falls and the bridge. As they approached, Grace swooped up and landed on the railing near the east end:


She took off when a passing pedestrian walked nearby, and flew upriver, passing in front of the falls:


On the return trip she actually passed right over the bridge, on her way to a landing on one of the High Falls Brewing Company buildings:
          

Two others raced north of the bridge near the BeeBee station:


Mariah and Kaver both joined in the flying, sometimes chasing their daughters, sometimes flying solo:
     

When one of the girls landed at the foot of the observation deck, Mike, Dana and I headed up the path, hoping for a close-up view. Along the way, Linn treated us to a spectacular low-level fly-over:


The fledgling on the rock flew before we could get to the observation deck, but I managed to snap these shots of her:
     

We were surprised to see a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) appear on the cliff edge just beneath us:


We learned later that one of the fledglings had chased it up the side of the gorge!

After more minutes of flying the fledglings all settled in. A couple of them landed on the gorge wall, including this one who took a siesta on a small rocky cornice:


Even Kaver found a comfortable perch on a dead bough:


An afternoon teleconference forced me to return to the office. I'm thrilled to see that the fledglings are migrating out toward the gorge. This is where the best flying of the season is likely to occur, so I'm excited to get out this weekend for more watching.