A treasure hunt. That's sort of what it feels like when searching for the birds now. It is a hunt to find out where they are, but oh the treasures you see at the end of it! If only they would mark where they were going to be with a big X or a huge talon print...ah, if only.
They are moving further south now. We first discovered them this morning down by Conseco Fieldhouse. That's a bit of distance away from the immediate Circle area. They are flying from building to building to building and back again. We had all four juveniles in sight in no time flat.
KathyQ
Many sights to embed in the falcon section of my brain. Good rewards for all the hours spent on the street. Falcon tag, falcon fly-bys, falcon squawks, falcon kaks (yes, KathyQ was kakking at us again - this time we were on the street - good grief!), falcon mock food transfers - it's all good. I go home with the sounds of the birds in my mind.
KathyQ
They are all doing very well, so well it is hard to distinguish an adult from the one of the kids in the air now. We didn't witness an airstrike by one of the juveniles but they definitely aren't being fed by the adults anymore - it's a drop-off by KathyQ or Kinney and get the heck out of there. They are even plucking their own food. We did see some mantling action by one of the kids who then proceeded to eat the whole thing.
Kinney
The juveniles are even audacious enough to land on the fire escape of the Barnes-Thornburg building. It's audacious because this is KathyQ's kingdom. She'll perch high up on the top rung of the escape which gives her a good view of the whole scene.
What where the special moments? All of them but perhaps it is remembering Kinney seemingly urging KathyQ to get in there and lay those eggs - recall back in March, he seemed to entice her in with his masterful tidying up of the scrapes? She didn't seem to care, maybe playing a little hard to get or just so full of eggs she was in a daze. Or perhaps it is remembering Kinney counting his precious eggs or trying to cover them with his smaller body. Or the first hatch - now how fun was that, all the anticipation and the emergence of the first chick? And of course, the antics of the fluffballs as they unabashedly grew up before our eyes in the box, sometimes looking directly at the camera lens as if to say hey humans, what are you looking at? Magee, Edna, Adira and Val - you are a great addition to the falcon family and I hope fruitful and long-lived lives are in store for all of you.
Thanks to Kinney and KathyQ and the 4 juvies Magee, Edna, Adira and Val. And to Laura James-Reim for all her reports!
Until next season!
Photo's provided by Scott, Ron, and Duane and Kathy G
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