FALCON FLASH
Dateline: Cleveland, Ohio
June 4, 2013
Mr. Harvey Webster, Director of Wildlife Resources at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, tells us, “….the life of a Peregrine fledgling is fraught with danger. Peregrine Falcons live a life at the extreme. They are faster than all other birds, capable of breathtaking aerial stoops and maneuvers. They constantly test the aerodynamic limits of their bodies and wings and push the envelope that allows them to conquer the skies. Their lives are dangerous enough in wide open areas. In the city, they have to avoid the buildings and contend with the unpredictable and turbulent winds in the city canyons. That is why it is so perilous to be a young Peregrine learning to fly in a city. The mortality rate is very high. Some suggest that only 25% of young raptors survive to celebrate their first birthday”.
A big cheer for Mr. Wright and all the people who spent countless hours rescuing Tess. Because the peregrines are still rare, each bird is precious.
File photo of a fledgling take-off is courtesy of volunteer monitors Mr. and Mrs. Saladin. All other photos are courtesy of Scott Wright, volunteer peregrine nest monitor. They may be used in any non-commercial publication, electronic or print, but please give photo credit.
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.
Tess (28y) has flown. Volunteer nest monitor, Mr. Scott Wright, visited the nest on Friday, and determined she was ready to fly. After Mr. Wright left he reports there was a huge thunderstorm that passed through that evening. He reminds us, “In photos you have seen from the past … young birds fly along the ledge and “Taxi” up and down the ledge jumping and flapping”. She may well have been caught by a wind in the storm and blown into the air.
Mr. Wright was called about the missing fledgling. He reports that he found her on Saturday morning on the 9th floor ledge of the hotel. Look very closely in front of the window in this picture and you will see Tess. SW is flying above her.
Mr. Wright continues, “I watched her until nearly 8pm. She was fed once in the time I was watching her, Boomer had flown in many times giving her food and every time SW took it away and gave it to (Ginger) 27 Y. One time Boomer had 28 Y’s food taken away by SW and he must have had a food cache nearby as not 5 minutes later he flew in and gave 28 Y a meal. It must have been very small or dried up as she was done with it very quickly.
One thing SW did after she took the food away was fly over (Tess) with the food attempting to draw her off the ledge. One thing the adults were doing was withholding food, in an attempt to make (Tess) hungry trying to draw her off the ledge and secondly to keep her body weight down to make it easier to fly. Another behavior that the adults do, is if the young fledged falcon is below the nest, say a few floors below, the adults are like, ‘OK girl you flew to this location now if you want food you have to fly back or to another building as high as or equal in height to the nest ledge’, then they will get a meal.
Around noon 28 Y flew from the hotel’s 9th floor across the Square and tried to land on the Society Bank building. SW was all over her, flying above calling out to her”.
It’s hard to get a picture of an early fledge, but here is a file photo of a fledgling about Tess’s age taking off…..
Mr. Wright describes the flight, “(Tess) 28 Y had gained enough height to nearly the top of Society Bank. She missed. The window ledges of this red stone building are angled downward. So she tried to land on two of the ledges and missed. She also had to fight very very strong winds. The adults know to soar and glide and use the winds to gain altitude. The young birds, instead of soaring, end up flapping into the wind losing altitude the entire time. So (Tess) 28 Y started to lose altitude and ended up flapping and raking her talons along the side of the building losing altitude. I was standing by the front of the building - the trees on Public Square blocked the rest of her flight from my view.
Next began the nearly 2-hour ground and building search. I got into several building who let me search-hidden nooks and crannies behind locked gates and such - no luck finding her. …. When I went back to the Tower, a Cleveland Police officer, Chris Eaton, who works in the building came with me to lend an extra set of eyes. Bob my brother stayed watching (Ginger) 27 Y who was still on the ledge. So myself and Officer Eaton searched and searched, 28 Y was in a tree in front of the Old Stone Church - darn she was in the tree that I had walked past a half a dozen times. Extra set of eyes was critical”.
“She ended up grabbing the umbrella and I had a Peregrine on the end of the umbrella as I came down the ladder. So wild. A guy who used to watch the nest years ago (keep in mind this is my 20th nesting season) used to rate the day’s activity ….. he would say ‘today was a 50 cent day’ if the activity was zilch, and he would call it ‘a million dollar day’ if we saw loads of activities. Today was a multi-million dollar day”.
(Tess) 28 Y was low when she was spotted in the tree but ended up climbing to the top of the tree. She was not able to get clearance for her wings to launch herself from the tree. I attempted to push her out of the tree when she tried to go too far out on a thin branch and flopped down thru the tree ending up about 18 feet from the ground”.
I went to get a ladder from the building (thanks to Tower City security and Officer Eaton who found a ladder and got the carrying cage to carry the bird back up when she was caught). I ended up using a golf umbrella too (now keep in mind I am standing up on the top rungs of the ladder as I placed the umbrella under the bird). So I am holding on to the tree with my right arm and extending my left arm with the umbrella under the kid”.
Click here to read what happened earlier
Click here to read what happened next
So I had the bird off the ladder and only had one glove on. I gently got her talons off the umbrella and a hold of my glove. Sunset was less than 2 hours away, she had had no food for over 36 hours. I checked her body out by using my not-gloved hand and she was a bit underweight, but she put up quite the fight, if she had been docile I would have taken her to the Zoo to fatten her up till her weight increased”.
Then Tess was taken inside her skyscraper home and rode the elevator up to the 12th floor with Mr. Wright, who put her back out onto her nesting ledge.
