Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rochester: 2 fledges!








































Real exciting news! 2 Of the Rochester juvies have fledged already! As expected Zephyr, the eldest male with the yellow band was the first to fledge late last evening and his big Sis SusanB followed him this afternoon. In the meantime, the second male with the red band Diamante has left the nestbox as well and hopped over in the playpen this morning.
Thinmgs are moving fast now.
The Rochester Falcon Blog has a Falcon Watch Fledge part for the first time this year. The fledgeteam reports about what they observe! What a great initiative.

They report that last night between 7-8 they saw the first one in the air which was indentified as Zephyr.

Quote:"Around 7:20 we saw a falcon again in the air looping in front of the tower. Dan and I both thought it was Mariah. However, the falcon went for a landing on the grey slate peaked roof, but missed and instead landed on the slate, where it promptly slid down the slate. Both Dan and I realized that this was an eyas on a fledge.

We watched the fledge take back to the air and make a loop to the north side where we lost sight. Let me say that the flying was graceful and aesthetic. We had no idea that is was a fledge struggling. Only the landing gave it away. Dan and I walked to the north but could not locate the fledge. Presumably it made it to the 20th floor and was behind the balustrades where we may not see it for quite some time. Dan and I returned to hq and joined up with Lisa M. The three girls were accounted for as was Mariah who was quite serene in her guardianship. We quickly spotted an eyas on the SE floodlight but inside the rail."


What great news, Zephyr is a born flyer!

This morning they saw a second juvie in the ait, a much bigger one. It has to be SusanB, the other 2 females are stil in the nestbox, only Diamante is missing and will be somewhere in the playpen. One of the fledglings was sitting on teh cam this afternoon and took off again.

Quote: "At some point, Zephyr took off from the letters and made a nice loop with some excellent flying and then executed a perfect landing on the rail of the southeast corner of the playpen. A picture-perfect landing. We were marveling at Zephyr’s aerobatic skill which looks quite good. It was certainly a much better landing than this morning’s landing on the slate roof.

Of course, later we caught sight of another peregrine in the air and as we focused our binoculars on it, the very distinctive tail markings of an eyas were visible. Too big to be Zephyr, we realized that we had a second fledge going on. She made some turns and headed for the letters, but the landing was poor. Off she went for more turns before eventually making it to the 19th floor ledge on the south side."


2 Of our juvies in the air. It will not be long before they will be joined by Diamante. And finally the 2 girls will make it and then the fun can really hit the road, or better the sky! Their will be a lot of squawking over Rochester again. Wish I could be there, just for once, to see the legendary Rochesters flying over the Gorge. It must be absolutely awesome!



Read all about the Rochesters on Imprints http://www.rfalconcam.com/falconwatch/

Derby Cathedral Peregrines














































Tiddler stranded last night and had to be rescued by Nick Moyes of the Derby Project Team. Apparently, a member of the public found 007 on the ground, picked him up and put him in a basket and took him to the pub itself.
Nick and Tony took him back up to the top of the tower to release him as the light began to fade. So all's well that ends well for 007.

Read more obn the Derby Blog:
Read more about the Derby Peregrines and to order the great DVD:
http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/

De Mortel live






















Great pics of one of the juvies today in front of the cam. Look at this one, it is S2 all over, the same head, beak, eyes, posture. She sure has very strong genes, all 4 have a great resemblance to their mother!

Columbus Ohio: 37 days



















The Columbus 4 at the Rhodes Tower are already 37 days old. They are changing rapidly now into juvies. They are constantly on the ledge and in front of the cam. That makes is easy for us to see how the white down is falling off and the feathers are growing. A few more days and the first one will fledge.
They are practising on the ledge hopflapping up and down. They are making their flightmuscles stronger and stronger and get a feeling of what to do when they actually fledge.

Sometimes fledging is pure by accident, when they are flapping and los grip of the ground and the wind gets hold of them. Or are slipping away and flap to keep their balance and discover they can fly! Others fledge because they are ready for it.

b/g)S47 Justice (female)
b/g S73 Mistic (female)
b/g C65 Columbus (male)
b/g C66 Boomer (male)

Xcell Allen S. King Plant










These 2 are getting more beautiful every day changing into juvies. Look at the growing feathers and the brown eyepatches.

Nijmegen: still going strong!






















The 3 Nijmegen juveniles keep the nestbox as their home to which they return to rest and sleep.
This morning when I woke up one of them was sitting in the june sunshine being very beautiful The little thing got me late for work, just couldn't say goodbye!

XCell Black Dog: 18 days old
















Aren't they sweet. The Black Dog eyases are 18 days old and slowly turning into chicks who can sit up, looking very healthy indeed. Both parents take good care of their 4 eyases!