Author: Matt Perry

After an accident on Friday evening, Tres was taken to a wildlife rehabilitator. He was captured just after 8:00 PM after landing in a road and having a vehicle pass over him. Although there were no obvious injuries to the young falcon, his behavior indicated that all was not right and he should be examined by experts. I will post an update once his condition has been ascertained. Meanwhile, as of last night, Indi and Leda were still staying close to the nest box, though not spending much time actually inside of it. Leda has been content to “hop-fly” back and forth between the box’s perch and roof, while Indi prefers just to scoot over onto the window ledge on the east side of the box.

On the morning of June 26th, Tres became the first ever Peregrine Falcon chick known to fledge in Utica and Oneida County. Hopefully he will recover and be able to return soon.

Here are some photo highlights from last night’s Fledge Watch by Wildlife Photographer David Cesari:

 

The Utica Peregrine nestlings took the first day of our Fledge Watch very seriously. Although none of the 3 took the opportunity to actually fly, both Tres and Leda left the box and explored the window ledges on both sides of the box. Negotiating around the pillars between the windows was a bit tricky, but the 2 youngsters soon got the hang of it. Watching this from the ground was nerve-racking for the human observers. As for the parents – Astrid did eventually entice Tres back into the box with a food delivery, while Leda was content to spend the night by herself on one of the window ledges. Leda was fed at her new location. Meanwhile, Indi, our largest female and the first chick to hatch, remained at the box the entire day and never ventured out onto the perches. Who knows what will happen today! If you are in town, please stop in and join the Watch. Bring binoculars and prepare to be nervous!

An interesting transformation has occurred in the nest box over the past several days. The 3 down-covered Peregrine Chicks that we had become so attached to have morphed into immature raptors. If you had skipped the last week of viewing, you might wonder who these 3 rambunctious and fully feathered young falcons are that took over the nest box. Well actually they have names now; the Utica Peregrine Falcon Project has named them Independence (Indi), Leda and Tre (that’s in order of hatching).  As we begin this week, we are anticipating the possibility of our first fledge to take place. It could happen anytime within the next couple of weeks, but each day these birds are looking more and more ready to take their first flight. They have been flapping their wings incessantly and by the looks of their well-developed wing feathers, it might happen sooner than later. In light of this we will be begining our Fledge Watch on this coming Wednesday. On Monday, June 23 at 6:30PM we will have an informational meeting for our Fledge Watch Volunteers. All interested people are encouraged to meet us in the bank’s parking lot at the back of the Adirondack Bank building at that time. We hope to see you there!

We’ve seen a number of interesting changes in behavior with the Peregrine chicks over the last few days. The most remarkable involving our largest one (presumably a female). More than once when the parents brought prey into the box she’s been grabbed it away from them and hauled it off into a corner where she could eat it herself. What a little miser! We’ve also been seeing some gentler behavior between the chicks which involved  beak touching and subtle head gestures. These are actions that mimic what adult birds do when interacting with each other. More and more wing flapping has been taking place every day and it really puts on display the amount of  feather growth that has taken place. These chicks are quickly turning into falcons. Our Fledge Watch is probably going to start in the middle of next week. We still need volunteers so please do register today! The falcons need your help and so do we!