Three weeks after fledging, the young Utica Peregrine Falcons are all still together and doing fine. Weeks of chasing each other and sparring is preparing them well for their future life of hunting and protecting territory. Certainly their flying abilities have improved markedly – so much so that the falcon watchers need not cringe when one of them comes in for a tricky landing. None of the family including the parents are tied to the nest box anymore, but once in a while one of them will pay a visit to the old homestead. Currently the young are spending the majority of their time in the artificial “canyon” that constitutes the small Downtown area. Their favorite buildings are the State Office Building and Hotel Utica, and the young birds do most of their chasing and other aerial stunts around these places. The parents are becoming more elusive of late. Probably hunting farther afield in order to keep up with the growing appetites of demanding young. In fact the begging screeches of the young falcons have become a common part of the Downtown sound-scape. Soon enough though the younsteers will be expected to hunt up their own grub. I expect that Ares may be counting the days until that comes to pass!
Terrific photo captures! Of the three fledglings in flight, quite obvious which one is Indi!
Oh, YES, I just saw them today. First time I happened to catch them in the air. I saw Indy lurking on a windowsill on the state office building a few days ago but haven’t seen them in the air playing like they were today in awhile now. And I saw one of them do a “stoop”…I think it was Indy and I think she may have caught something. It was either her or Astrid because it was big but I think Astrid would have been a bit more polished in the execution of the dive. But it was the first time I got to see that so it was fun. It was about 1 p.m. I saw them playing around the state office building and I love love love how skilled they got flying!
Beautiful pictures as usual. How great that you were able to capture them all three in the air together.
Absolutely amazing photos!!