Author: Matt Perry

Yesterday at around 2:00 PM, Indi became the 3rd and last of our Peregrine chicks to fledge. Her maiden flight was strong and led her from the nest box over to a high window ledge on the State Office Building. Prior to the fledging, Leda had been sitting next to Indi on the box’s perch. She took off first and led the way. Indi is the largest of the clutch and her sizable wings provided a lot of lift. She had no problem staying high and her landing on the State Building – though not perfect, was not too scary.

Meanwhile Leda is gaining more and more expertise – not quite to the point of showing off, but close. At one point when Ares landed on a high ledge with food, Leda flew in and landed right next to him. Her father seemed most interested in feeding himself, but every 3rd bite or so was offered to his eager daughter.

The report for Tres is all good. No broken bones or any problems were found. He is fiesty and eating well. There are plans to band him and return him to his family. I will give more details on this when I have them.

Early Sunday evening Leda treated herself and the Fledge Watch volunteers to a tour of the Downtown Utica area. During the day she had already made a couple of flights between the State Office Building and the Adirondack Bank, but this time her landing on the nestbox perch was scuttled by her sister Indi who was already occupying the spot. Leda pulled up and headed for the west side of the building. Some of the volunteers quickly set out to regain sight of her and managed to pick her out on a perch high up on the west face of the building. After only a few minutes she was up again and flying north to Hotel Utica where she perched on that building’s roof for a short time. Her next flight led us all Back over to the State Office Building. There she tried to land on a window ledge, but missed it and tumbled. Fortunately she recovered quickly and was able to regain altitude, finally putting down on the roof of the same building. After resting for 20 minutes or so, Leda again flew to the Adirondack Bank where she landed on the roof. From there she sailed back to the nest box and joined her sister.

Leda’s flying abilities are definitely improving. She has now made at least 3 flights back to the nest box from other buildings. Meanwhile, Indi continues to exercise her wings in and around the nest box. Will she fledge today? I guess that we’ll find out. We still need volunteers for the Fledge Watch. Please consider helping us out and safeguarding these magnificent birds!

Here are some more dramatic pictures that Dave Cesari took during the Fledge Watch:

 

Saturday at 5:00 PM, Leda became the 2nd of our Utica Peregrine Falcon chicks to fledge. Her maiden flight took her around Grace Church and the State Office Building. She finally landed on the roof of the Adirondack Bank. Of the 3 chicks Leda was the most prepared for flight. Over the past few days she had put in a considerable amount of practice flying from the nest box perch to the top of the box. In the next 2 hours she made a few more flights around the 2 block area before landing on a window ledge high on the west face of the State Office Building. There she appeared to settle down for the night. Meanwhile, Indi remained at the nest box and did a lot of serious wing flapping. Perhaps spurred by her sister’s success and her parents coaxing, it looked like she was going to fledge as well, but she stayed put. The Fledge Watch volunteers were fine with that decision, having already had enough excitement for one evening.

After an accident on Friday evening, Tres was taken to a wildlife rehabilitator. He was captured just after 8:00 PM after landing in a road and having a vehicle pass over him. Although there were no obvious injuries to the young falcon, his behavior indicated that all was not right and he should be examined by experts. I will post an update once his condition has been ascertained. Meanwhile, as of last night, Indi and Leda were still staying close to the nest box, though not spending much time actually inside of it. Leda has been content to “hop-fly” back and forth between the box’s perch and roof, while Indi prefers just to scoot over onto the window ledge on the east side of the box.

On the morning of June 26th, Tres became the first ever Peregrine Falcon chick known to fledge in Utica and Oneida County. Hopefully he will recover and be able to return soon.

Here are some photo highlights from last night’s Fledge Watch by Wildlife Photographer David Cesari: