Category: Awesome

Hi Everyone,
The calendar has been updated with the signups from tonight’s meeting. Please review the calendar and let me know if you can fill in any of our gaps. Feel free to correct me if I have any times or dates wrong for any of you. One note – you can view the calendar in 3 different layouts – Week, Month or Agenda. Week or Agenda seem to be easier to find the gaps but view in whatever version works the best for each of you.
Thank you all for attending tonight – we look forward to working with each of you and enjoying a positive fledge watch!

The calendar is posted but not accurate – this was a test only. I will update it very soon!!!

An interesting transformation has occurred in the nest box over the past several days. The 3 down-covered Peregrine Chicks that we had become so attached to have morphed into immature raptors. If you had skipped the last week of viewing, you might wonder who these 3 rambunctious and fully feathered young falcons are that took over the nest box. Well actually they have names now; the Utica Peregrine Falcon Project has named them Independence (Indi), Leda and Tre (that’s in order of hatching).  As we begin this week, we are anticipating the possibility of our first fledge to take place. It could happen anytime within the next couple of weeks, but each day these birds are looking more and more ready to take their first flight. They have been flapping their wings incessantly and by the looks of their well-developed wing feathers, it might happen sooner than later. In light of this we will be begining our Fledge Watch on this coming Wednesday. On Monday, June 23 at 6:30PM we will have an informational meeting for our Fledge Watch Volunteers. All interested people are encouraged to meet us in the bank’s parking lot at the back of the Adirondack Bank building at that time. We hope to see you there!

We’ve seen a number of interesting changes in behavior with the Peregrine chicks over the last few days. The most remarkable involving our largest one (presumably a female). More than once when the parents brought prey into the box she’s been grabbed it away from them and hauled it off into a corner where she could eat it herself. What a little miser! We’ve also been seeing some gentler behavior between the chicks which involved  beak touching and subtle head gestures. These are actions that mimic what adult birds do when interacting with each other. More and more wing flapping has been taking place every day and it really puts on display the amount of  feather growth that has taken place. These chicks are quickly turning into falcons. Our Fledge Watch is probably going to start in the middle of next week. We still need volunteers so please do register today! The falcons need your help and so do we!

For the last few days we’ve been struggling to see through the fog of whitewash on the main camera. It has almost been like watching the birds in a dream! We hope to be switching to camera 2 as soon as we are able. Some may remember the last time we switched to the backup camera, it was immediately rendered useless by a troublesome feather that adhered to its lens. Now the nemesis feather has shifted somewhat and we’ve been able to get a much clearer view. This camera looks at the nest action from the perspective of the back of the box, so we should be able to see the young as they look outside through the box opening. It should be perfect for fledging time, which is now only a few weeks away. Speaking of which, if you are able to help us with our organized Fledge Watch please register ASAP on this site’s Fledge Watch page. We hope to see you there!