06-17-2021 Fledging Update
The Peregrine juvies have kept us hopping this year with many hours on site and hours of worry. The female chick, nicknamed Princess because, well... that seems to fit. She has certainly kept her loyal followers waiting for her to act. We may come up with a more permanent name soon. She finally decided to try First Flight, Take 2 on Sunday morning (6/13). Her brother was so excited that he almost knocked her out of the air. Rebecca flew under her for support, moral or otherwise. She landed on the parking ramp ledge and rested for a couple hours until she was spooked by a car and flew to the billboard on Olde Peninsula. Her brother Vincent joined her and stayed with her a long time. She then flew to another building and again he joined her and stayed. Later in the day, they both made their way back to the 5/3 Building. The wind was quite strong and gave both rookies some challenges, but both landed safely and were seen there into the evening.
The flight school cadets performed well and graduated. They returned home on Thursday, Jun 17. Their family was in sight when they were released, and Rebecca immediately connected with each of them. They landed on two different buildings, but she circled one then the other and kept tabs on them throughout the day. They had good strong flights and landings and Chase soon found his way back to the nest box. We are always relieved when they connect with family and know where “home” is.
The young falcons spend lots of time with their parents and siblings learning the skills they need to survive. They chase and grab at each other. They learn to take food in mid-air from their parents and try to steal it from their siblings. We have started to see this behavior already today. This time of learning and skill building is important to their success when they strike out on their own, typically in mid to late July.
We do have some news that is not so happy. Vincent has not been seen since Sunday night (6/13) and we fear the worst. His flying was good, but at his stage of development, he does not have the hunting skills to provide for himself and is dependent on his parents for food. He spent much time interacting socially with his family, so it seems unlikely that he has isolated himself from those connections. We have not seen his parents delivering food to a different site. We have spent a lot of time looking for him and continue to hope that he will surface, but we are felling pretty heavy hearted.
Becasue the youngsters have fledged, we had discontinued the livestream feature. The cameras are still in real time, but with a delay. the nest box camera is still hazy, but some of the poop is flaking off!
