Fledge Watch: Skye and Some Friends

Before I get into the pictures from this morning, here are a couple from the past few days. I haven't had many chances to get out to watch recently-- I've been very busy at work. Yesterday the weather was perfect for watching, though, with temperatures in the 70s and clear skies. Unfortunately, none of the fledglings made an appearance during the lunch hour, but I did spot Kaver on the 17th floor ledge of the tower as my watch was ending:


From July 28 comes this shot of an unidentified fledgling under the bridge, which I took on a lunch-hour watch:

I think we probably had it identified at the time, but my Y-chromosome brain is failing me at the moment...

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We had some great views of Skye today, and though I didn't get to see much flying from her in my three hours of watching, what I did see was pretty exciting. Stalwart watcher Dan S was the only soul on the bridge when I arrived shortly after 6:30. He noted that he'd seen one of the juveniles on the Kodak tower earlier in the morning, but had no other sightings of the falcons. Jean joined us a bit later, and said she'd heard kacking on her way out to the bridge. She thought it was coming from the tower, so I decided to take a look. A five minute walk brought me to the west side of the tower where I found a fledgling on the railing outside of the Philadelphia tower:


I soon discovered this was Skye when she took off and went almost immediately into a very nice, if shallow stoop. She plummeted across Morrie Silver Way and drove into Frontier Field where she set a large group of gulls and pigeons into chaotic flight. I was looking into the sun which made identification difficult, but I believe that I saw her chasing the prey birds east toward the gorge. By the time I had crossed the road to the ballpark, the chase had moved out of sight. I walked back to the bridge, hoping that Dan or Jean might have seen something. On my way, I checked the substructure of the Pont de Rennes, but saw no perching peregrines.

Back on the bridge, I found that Larry and his dog had arrived, along with Cornpoppy, who motored out on his Vespa scooter. I reported my sighting, but unfortunately Skye hadn't appeared. We found plenty of other birds to keep our attention, though. As Joyce, Carol, Dana & Lou, and Marcia joined us, we found this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) resting in a tree:


We also had a great opportunity to watch a pair of Belted Kingfishers (Ceryle alcyon) as they hovered low over the water and hunted. Here are the pair of them sitting on a cable that stretches across part of the river below the High Falls:

After one of them dove into the watch he emerged with a small silvery fish. He flew toward the bridge and landed on a piece of dead wood near the water. He slapped the fish against the perch several times before he gulped it down:


We were also entertained by a triad of American Kestrels that were cavorting north of the bridge near the High Falls Brewing Company. They treated us to some talon tag, but moved too quickly for in-flight pictures. Here's a shot of the three of them during a lull in the action, lined up on a railing on top of one of the brewery's buildings:


Below the Kestrels, a second Heron was fishing in the shallow river:


The rest of the morning was all about Skye. It began when Carol saw her approaching from the north, sprinting toward the falls at high speed. She didn't appear to be chasing anything though, and she left the gorge for the buildings downtown where we lost her. We went back to watching the other birds, and it was looking like a few glimpses were going to be the sum of our watching activity, when she made a stealthy landing on a nearby building! We scrambled down the path that leads to the observation deck to get the sun at our backs for better pictures:


She stayed put, seemingly unconcerned with having a half-dozen shutter bugs poised below. She didn't even mind when we took pictures of her preening:


She kept swiveling her head to follow the many Chimney Swifts (Chaetura pelagica) that flew by, but otherwise she was very relaxed, perching with one foot tucked up:


What a beauty! I must have taken a hundred shots of her (I love my camera's burst mode). We were hoping she'd take off and give us an opportunity to get some in-flight shots, but after a half hour she hadn't moved, so I decided to head home, knowing I'd most likely miss some action. On the way out, I caught a shot of Skye yawning. Was she tired, or bored? You be the judge...