After plenty of coaxing by both parents, Comet, who hadn’t left the east face of the Adirondack Bank Building since Tuesday, finally flew on Saturday morning. His flight was relatively strong and direct. It led him across the canyon and to the west face of the State Office Building where he put down on a high window ledge. It was a great relief to see him flying so well. We were beginning to think that he may have sustained an injury when he “crash landed” against a window screen five days before, but in flight he appeared to be fine. However, once he had his nook on the State Building, he was committed to remain there and didn’t move again for the rest of the day, and that’s despite some tireless coaxing from both parents. Skye, on the other hand, needed no coaxing. She (Or he! – the relatively small size of Skye’s wingspan is now forcing us to reconsider the bird’s gender) made at least ten flights today – all between the State Office Building and the Adirondack Bank. She is starting to become adept at landing on the window ledges of the State Building, which is no mean feat.
The parents surprised us today by returning to the empty nest box more than once and performing their in-box courtship dance. This entailed lots of bowing and calling and culminated with Astrid making a few nest scrapes! Don’t worry though, these two are not going to nest again this season.
Folks, just because the box is usually empty now doesn’t mean that the fledglings are out of danger. They are still in need of flight experience and for at least the next 2 weeks, they will be practicing their skills in the Downtown canyon. We still need fledge Watch volunteers to step up and help us safeguard these birds. If you’re able to assist, please sign up for a time on the Fledge Watch page or contact us directly.
It helps a lot to have such Wonderful pictures when I can’t be there much to watch.