Our 3 little nestlings are not so little any more. In fact they’ve been exhibiting all manner of new behavior this week. They’ve been seen walking upright, feeding themselves (just a little bit) and shock of shocks – hopping up on the ledge. One of them actually did that just today and admittedly caused us some some heart flutter. Certainly their wing and tail feathers have been coming along nicely but they still have a long way to go. I guess that this was a foreshadow of things to come. Speaking of which, we need to set up a fledgling watch for our fine little trio. We’re hoping that there will not be a shortage of volunteers to help us safeguard Utica’s first fledglings on their maiden flight. There will be more information forthcoming on this project. If anyone of you have doubts about participating because you’ve never done this kind of thing before, just remember that none of us have experience doing this either. We’ll all be jumping into the wind just like the falcons.
Meanwhile, I’m sure that everyone has noticed the improvement in our falcon cam view. Sure there’s still some whitewash issues, but the resolution has markedly improved and the field of view has grown. Thanks to John Matthews, Deb Saltis and Steve Bennett for figuring it out. They are the best team anyone could wish for!
an update from Hsb, PA > the quartet there is now down to a trio – the 1st one (a male) to take flight a couple of weeks ago is believed to have ‘crashed’ into a window or another object. the poor thing was found by one of their watchers.
Learning to fly is not the only danger for Utica’s new brood
thank you to those who have greatly improved the field of view in the nest box
Annie: So sad!
6:54:20 (June 12) watching the chicks > one is currently picking off bits of food from remnants of a meal that either Ares or Astrid had delivered earlier , the chick is really working at it – pecking at it almost as rapid as the parents have been in feeding the chicks in past viewings
only ones in view are 2 of the chicks.
two chicks were laying in a row at the far end of the box, those two took up almost the whole end of the box (the beak of one was against the ‘doorway’ and the beak of the other was by the tail end of the first).
Matt, another typo on the eating comment, could you fix the ha to had (on the 3rd line)?
I did it just now. Sorry that it takes me so long to get to these things. This is a very busy time of year for me!
gender: if I am seeing things correctly there appears to be at least one female (flat head at top) but that was the only one at the time with its head up in the air, 2nd chick in view but not sitting up, 3rd one was to the left (and too close) of the camera
is it possible to have all girls? all 3 look like they have “buzz” haircuts (?flat heads) now that they are posing so all 3 can be seen
cam is taking a long time loading …… and still has not opened (a couple of minutes later)
have tried earlier this morning and same results
are the cheek feathers a different color for females?
I’m seeing a small cluster of brown feathers on the cheeks of 2 (so far) just past the jaw line
3rd chick is not ‘photogenic’ at this time (must be camera shy – not in view)
last evening it seems like the camera was in range for ‘target practice’.