Juvenile Delinquents

Well, I was tied up with visitors and haven't peeked in on the nest in several days. Wow, the 'kids' have grown! If you are lucky enough to open the cameras to feeding time, you'll hear a horrendous noise that I can only describe as a mob of juvies pushing their way to front of a street fight. Wow, when blood is in the air they are not nice.

Things are heating up in Salt Lake City with a high of 93 yesterday - today we have a respite with a high in the mid 70's, ahhh. The weekend's expected high's back in the mid 90's will make for very toasty days down at Temple Square for the rescue team. If all goes as it should, and if 2009's experience is any indication, starting Sunday morning some of us 'towel' people will be spending time hanging out waiting for the first kid to jump.

I received a nice email from a reader today and it reminded me that I should probably talk a little bit about what it's like being a volunteer and what will happen during HELL WEEK. He was worried about what will happen when  the kids fledge, will they learn to fly ok, etc. I worried about that too in 2009 as a first time volunteer and was very happy to find out that they are well adapted to leave the nest and the parents are great teachers. Actually, there are some stressful days prior to the first leap, of watching them practice flapping wings, hopping up and down, wondering when exactly they will jump. I don't know if this is true of most fledging of Peregrines but both of the chicks fledged in the early morning in 2009, one day apart. Once one decides to go, its pretty hard to be left behind in the nest. Why are we calling it HELL WEEK? Because keeping up with two juvies was worrisome and FOUR is gonna be insane!

More on first days of flight in my next post. Leaving you with a night image of the kids waiting for dinner.