Where have all the falcons gone? Out walking on the building’s ledges! Can you spot the young falcon in this picture?
Here is Ginger a little over a week ago………….
If you’ve been watching the FalconCams lately, you know that the nest is empty much of the time.
You may have noticed that ever since the eggs were hatching, the nestbox is a mess – including 2 unhatched yucky looking eggs.
Mr. Harvey Webster, Director of Wildlife Resources at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, tells us, “The condition of the nest deteriorates as the nesting season progresses. Feathers plucked from prey species, other inedible parts of prey (beaks, legs, feet, wings), pellets (the compact masses of bones and feathers that the chicks regurgitate daily), mutes (the uric acid or whitewash that the chicks forcibly expel up against the back wall of the nest and on the pea gravel), all of these things are accumulating in the nest. By the time the chicks are banded at three weeks of age, the smell of the nest will be – well, let’s just say it won’t be springtime fresh”.
Our thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for sponsoring the FalconCams.
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.
But, all that flapping and walking can make a young falcon tired.
Mr. Webster continues, “You might think that this is an unhealthy environment for the developing chicks, but they are hardy and soon they will be able to leave the scrape and the nest box and wander up and down the ledge, away from the concentration of organic materials in the nest box and free to disperse their refuse elsewhere. The parents have no role in nest sanitation. In the wild during the non-breeding season, the nest site would be scoured by wind, rain, snow and ice and baked in the hot summer sun such that by the next spring it would be comparatively clean. Remember Peregrine Falcons are remarkably faithful to successful nest sites and those sites will be used for decades or even centuries. Peregrine Falcons nesting in the state of Ohio have the Ohio Division of Wildlife to thank for nest sanitation services once per year”.
In another week or 10 days, the juvenile falcons will be taking their first flight, and they walk and flap a lot to strengthen their muscles.
The first flight is called “fledging”. Sara Jean Peters, of the Ohio Division of Wildlife (retired) tells us:
“Like children learning to walk, flight is a series of experiments...some successful, some not.
Chicks typically exercise their wings, flapping in place, hopping and flapping, and running and flapping. If their nest is on a cliff, updrafts can actually catch under the extended wings and lift the birds up into the air and to a higher ledge. There are updrafts in the city as well, although the ledges aren't as numerous.
A chick that flushes from the ledge and takes flight too early may end up on the ground...a risky place in the city as well as at the foot of a cliff. It takes more muscle power to fly UP than out. Muscle development comes with age and exercise. The first flight made by an older chick will probably be more successful than that made by a younger chick. Landings, a very important part of flights, take lots of practice regardless of age!”
Volunteer nest monitor, Mr. Wright, calls the young falcons “flapping machines” at this point in their development.
