Laura reports:
Anyway, arrived downtown a little bit later than usual - I had to have that extra hour of sleep today. Nan from Greensburg and Susan N. were there and had already spotted some of our young friends. One of them - my guess is Magee because of where he was in relation to last's night position when I left him - decided to become part of the statuary light fixtures on the Circle. You know, you have to have a good eye to spot a brown bird on a brown, ornate metal light fixture. The fact that the juvies like to squawk with no reserve doesn't hurt either. It's very distinctive and very whiny.
I set my sights on watching him because his position was not the best and those are the ones who seem to struggle and end up in trouble. However, the long and short of it is that the bird managed to make a trip to the Federal building, take off from there, cut a right turn down Pennsylvania, land on a building near the City Market, take off from there, make several other stops before settling on the Emmis building - which is back on the Circle! What a roundabout trip to get to the place where he started. However, the important thing was he flew and gained height each time - a very, very good thing as Martha would say. And yes, three of us volunteers followed him in his magical mystery tour around and back to the Circle.
Much of the day was trying to spot all the young 'uns. They were flying here and there and everywhere. We did spot all four and both adults. They are hanging on the Monument, both up by Lady Victory and down by the gunboats, also checking out the Emmis building and the IPL building on the Circle. Most flights are very good but there are still some questionable landings. Oh well - that will come with time.
Following these guys now gets difficult. I wish I had 20 pairs of eyes that rotated around my head because that is what you need to catch all the action. It is fun and exciting and the best is yet to come. I'll detail more about that later and what the juvies will be doing.
One very way cool thing that happened today was watching Mr. Kinney go after pigeons on the Circle. He was on the IPL building and we were happily situated in the right spot at the right time. He SWOOPED down on his target just above car level. The pigeon made its evasive moves but Kinney didn't give up. He pursued it over to another quadrant of the Circle but was not successful. Back he goes to the IPL building with more pigeon on his mind. It was only minutes later when he came over our heads and went toward the Monument itself in hot chase of another pigeon. He made several valiant efforts but alas no success. Two of our volunteers, Anna and Gigi, were able to witness this whole scene and I'm sure they will concur it is pretty unforgettable. Gives you falcon bumps! But there was no pigeon pie for the kids.
Ron A. was down today with his remarkable camera and took some great shots. All pics in this post are courtesy Ron Adams
And we have storms moving through central Indiana once again so our evening volunteers will not be going down. However, two of them stayed after work before leaving for home and reported seeing all six birds - this just right after one wave of thunderstorms had moved through. So they are staying tight and using their noggins!
I arrived downtown around 7:15 am and by 7:25 I had all four juveniles in sight. They had found their playground for the day. Their starting point was the old Washington Hotel on East Washington street. Their silhouettes were magnificent against the sky, I mean really magnificent. They would spread their wings and flap, flap - not the flap, flap of "I'm not really sure what to do but I think I want of fly" but more of "I'll go when I'm darn good and ready." Much different than the last couple of days. Two of them were facing each other, beak to beak and I bet they were planning their day ahead.
It didn't take long for them to take off one by one. We headed down South Meridian to get a better look at where they were flying to. The juvies were heading back and forth between the hotel, the Barnes & Thornburg building and the old L.S. Ayres building. I could see point to point, fly-up to it landings by all of them. Some even landed on the window sills of the Barnes & Thornburg building. Those lucky lawyers.
These buildings are really ideal practice grounds for the young falcons - the roofs are wide and flat but also provide many architectural details that beckon more challenging and precision-point landings.
And the sound! There is nothing like a confident young falcon who has found his or her wings. The squawking as they fly is incredible - not the whiny, oh-woe-is-me like Val demonstrated on the atrium on Sunday, but more of a "Be the falcon? - Heck, I am the falcon and watch me fly!!" You can often hear them long before you see them in the sky.
KathyQ and Kinney were in the mix too. Kinney was doing a lot of flying and landing where the juveniles were located. I think he was waiting to clean up any scraps that may have been left behind by a juvenile that had a full tummy. We did see one of the adults with prey in its talons take it to the Monument and pluck but did not take the food to any of the juveniles. It headed west toward the Hyatt Regency hotel so it may have been storing food away for another day.
I would expect the next couple of days to see even more advanced falcon skills emerge. The tail-chasing, aerial ballet and mock food transfers are such fun to watch but critical for these guys to learn so they can live long and fruitful falcon lives. For us human observers, these next days will be the reward for the long hours on the street and the short hours in the bed getting sleep.
I am always amazed at how quickly things turn around for these juveniles. It hasn't been an easy year weather wise and they have handled the day after day strong winds and storms extremely well. Fledging can be a treacherous process and adding the element of bad weather can only add to their stress and ours.
http://blogs.indystar.com/falconblog/
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