FALCON FLASH
Dateline: Cleveland, Ohio
June 1, 2012
Click here to read what happened earlier
Watch the falcons live at: http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php
Our thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for sponsoring the FalconCams.
The file photo of a fledgling flying and the picture of Uno with down in her beak are courtesy of volunteers Mr. and Mrs. Mrs. Saladin. All other photos are courtesy of Mr. Scott Wright, volunteer peregrine nest monitor. Photos may be used in any non-commercial publication, electronic or print, but please give photo credit.
It's official - Uno has successfully fledged!
Here is a file photo of how an early fledge looks.
Volunteer peregrine nest monitor, Mr. Scott Wright, confirms the successful fledge. He found Uno high atop a nearby building.
Mr. Wright tells us, “The first few months of flying are dangerous for young peregrines as they must learn to fly successfully at high speeds. Think of a teenager who has just gotten his or her driver's license and then is handed the keys to a car that can go 150MPH!!! One thing Mother Nature does to help the new flyers survive is to give them "Speed Brakes" of a sort. If you look closely at the edges of the juvenile feathers you can see a brownish ROUGH edge. This causes a slower flow of air over the wing and makes the young falcons fly slower than adults who have molted into adult feathers”. Look closely at pictures of the young falcons and compare them to their parents to see the difference in plumage. SW's adult plumage is on the left - notice the difference in color as well as the structure. Juvenile feathers are on the right and show "Nature's Speed Brakes".
In the next picture, Uno demonstrates that every bird instinctively knows how to clean its feathers, an important activity called “preening.”
Preening must be done to keep the feathers clean and healthy. Volunteer nest monitor, Mr. Scott Wright, tells us, “Feathers are a bird's pride and joy and often they will do feather maintenance before they eat or drink”.
Here is Uno with a pesky piece of down.
A little bit of down reminds us that Uno is only 6 weeks old.
Stay tuned for more fledging news.
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