Rochester: 37 days old

Derby Cathedral juvies: crash landing.

In the early morning time for work out:


Juvie 005 takes off for the very first time







After number 005 left the other 2 just went on with their normal routine. I don't think these 2 have much in common. Junior is a bit scared of his big sis.













There are so very many beautiful pics of today. You can find them all here:

http://picasaweb.google.nl/efrona22/DerbyJuviesOnJune132008i


Well a lot has happened today.
This morning at 08:07 one of the 3 juvies left the nestbox in great wingdisplay. But at 8:30 he could not get up again and landed on the pavement in Irongate in Derby's Cathedral Quarter. The projectteam rushed to the juvenile with resque equipment like sturdy gloves and boxes. Nick Brown managed very quickly to get hold of juvie with bandnumber doubble-0-5. The juvie was not happy with that but the team was! They took him back up to the roof of the Tower.

The juvie was left there to recover from all the excitement. He was kept company by one of his sibblings. Probably number doubble-0-3 who fledged 2 days ago and who was very happy to finally have one of his brothers with him no doubt. Both parents where up in the sky cacking loudly. As usual Dad kept distance far up in the sky and let Mum do the work of scaring off the humans. But no broomsticks and helmets needed overhere fortunately.




So we have 2 juvies left in the nestbox and 2 up the Cathedraltower. From which I think one is flying on and off and the other one just does not want to let go of the cathedral wall for savety.


Photo courtesy of Derby Peregrine Project

Fledging is always a tricky business. Very often only one of a nest is a born flyer and takes off as if he never did anything else, is capable of gaining height and is able to get back. In this nestsite that is double-O-4.
The other ones have to learn to fly. Fledging is always before the flightfeathers are fully grown and hardened out. And the flight muscles are not strong enough. So they are not able of powerflight yet. Drag is the enemy in this case. Gravity and drag. A peregrine falcon however is a champion in fooling drag by changing it's form into airfoil ( droplet) Wings, body everything about the peregrine is build for fast flying. The juvies have to learn to use the laws of science and not to fight them. And fighting is what they do when fledging. But they learn very fast.
Colin Pass told me last night how juvie double-O-4 flies great already.

This peregrine family has a wonderful projectteam behind them to protect them from harm. To be there when something happens like this morning. Thank you all projectmemebers for everything you are doing for these wonderful birds of prey we all love so very much.



Read more on the Derby Blog:

http://derbyperegrines.blogspot.com/

Indianapolis: more news of the Indy 4

Report from Laura James-Reim:

What can I say - another great day! Our hours are shorter downtown now but we see much action early and then the birds settle down for a while. Plus today it started raining and we are fair-weather watchers at this point in the game. Not that we'll melt but our services aren't required over the long haul right now - thank goodness!

The birds are hanging out where they have been for the last couple of days. They seem to hone in on the old Washington hotel and then zoom around from there. Over to Barnes-Thornburg, the old L.S. Ayres and wedding cake buildings and back to the hotel again. We had all four in the air at various times in the morning and at times right over our heads. Such fun to watch!

They were chasing each other, playing falcon tag and attempting some mock food transfers. They are learning and learning fast. But that is what we have all been waiting for since we first watched them as eggs until the days that they hopped up on the perch and made us all gasp with nervousness.

One of the juvies even had the nerve to knock Kinney off the Barnes-Thornburg building and chase him. Kinney was having none of it - he hightailed it off north and quickly lost the juvenile pursuing him. Dad still knows and flies best.

As we all know, accidents can still happen but they are growing up and getting ready to go off into the falcon real world. Sniff.

Richard and I uploaded some photos from this morning (one is courtesy of Susan H. who took the pic with her new compact camera - thanks!). They aren't that close but there are some good family portraits of the juveniles hanging out on the railing of the old Washington hotel - these are keepers because how much longer will they cooperate for such a shot?

http://blogs.indystar.com/falconblog/

De Mortel :

The 4 De Mortel Juvies are doing fine.
Watchers at the Tower report a lot of action. The 4 juvies love to fly and prefer playing over dinner! When S2 brought home a fat pigeon which she almost could not carr up the first ring, a juvie tried to take the heavy prey over. But S2 just wanted to get the groceries up the tower asap. So no take-overs. The juvies where not interested in the meal and took off immediately again to play!
Watch the great video by Ton Kuipers. He makes great videoclips about the peregrine falcons at De Mortel. Be sure to visit his website:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kuiperst/

Columbus Ohio: 32 days old

Dayton Boomshoft Museum.

For 2 days now no juvie has showed himself in front of the webcam. Today the exciting news is that at least one of them has fledged.
That means that for us the time has come to say goodbye to these 2 beloved peregrine falcons to be. For weeks we where allowed to get a glimps of the beginning of their lives. From egg to eyas to juvi. Every time again it is a miracle of life itself. Beyond comprehension. Two beautiful and perfect juvies are stretching their wings to start their lives as a bird of prey.
We wish them a long and prosper live.
May the Great Spirit protect you and guide your paths...

Fledgetable

With teh latest news of the fledging of the Dayton juvies Kickapoo & Miami the Fledge table comes almost to completion. And it looks like this. Only Columbus and Rochester are the nestsites left.

Xcell Allen S. King Plant

Nijmegen: still around

Much to our joy there are still juvies around at the Nijmegen nestiste, even though they fledged all 3 of them.

Xcell: Black Dog