Saturday, July 9, 2011

Saturday Activities

Updates from Friday late day: I don't have all the birds identified in this story but one bird flew into a construction site and Bob got a call that a worker had the bird in a bucket. A bird flew over to the map, which you can see in the video, missed and slid into the gardens. Was retrieved. At another point a woman who is a volunteer for the church kept telling our people that she had a bird on the sidewalk across the street. They kept telling her, no, it couldn't be because they had all kids accounted for, but Steve finally went over just to make sure and sure enough, she had one of the kids. Amazing. Later in the evening, a woman called and said she absolutely new where Charlie was, she had spotted him and an adult on the west side of the Temple. She was right, Charlie was finally found and stayed put all night.

Sally came down one more time and Bob just decided to take her home with him instead of risking putting her back up. So this morning he waited until about 9am to take her back up and when he did, Bobbie, who was still up on the Beehive, flew off to the Temple and remained there the rest of the day. So Charlie and Bobbie are both on the same spire of the Temple, Charlie on the West face and Bobbie on the North.

Amelia had been on the map building all night and all morning until about noon. She followed the shade as it moved along the edge of the building, laying down in the shade, then five minutes later having to get up again and walk 12 inches to the shade and lay down again, until finally she flew back over to her favorite spot sitting under a spotlight. When Sally was released at nine, she immediately flew off southeast, both adults followed her, herding her back west where she smacked into the Zions Bank Building. She ended up on a sill in the shade. She stayed there for about 30 min then flew over towards the nestbox, glanced off onto a sill. Ten minutes later she flew over to the admin bldg and was fed by an adult. That was when we noticed her wing looking funny. She stayed there for a long time, walked the whole perimeter then made a flight again southeast, but looped around to land back on admin bldg just one ledge lower which put her in shade. At this point I left because all kids seemed to be in shade to hang out for the afternoon.

Here are the latest updates on the kids which was sent out my another volunteer, Pomera. I appreciate getting Pomera's updates every evening because I usually have to leave the grounds by 2pm and feel so left out of the evenings activities. Following the updates are many photos from today with captions.

Here's the latest on the falcons as of tonight at 10:00 p.m. The number by their names designates the order in which they fledged:

#1 - Amelia (female) - took her first flight since fledging early morning on July 6th and is currently resting on the temple.

#2 - Charlie (male) - fledged early morning on July 7th. He has literally "found his wings" and has been flying up a storm. At last report, he had made his way up quite high on the Church Office Building where we hope he will settle in for the night. In retrospect, we needn't have been worried about Charlie's well being when he went MIA. He knew where he was and so did his doting parents, but it's tough on the watch team when we don't have them in sight.

#3 - Sally (female) - fledged early morning on July 7th. Has taken the most hits - nothing serious, however. She "crashed" yesterday evening and it was too late to take her back up for another try. So she went home with Bob. Same scenario tonight. This bird's no dummy. I'm thinking she couldn't turn down another night of Walters' hospitality.

#4 - Bobbie (female) - slipped out of the box midday on July 7th. She's doing really well given how young she was when she took her first tumble. She is currently on the roof of the north visitors' center.
Bobbie on North Face JSMB 7:30 am, just in front of that red, white and blue shield on the right side of the spade. When Bob brought Sally up to release her, Bobbie spooked a bit and flew off the curley cue and over to the Temple where she sat around the corner from Charlie for most of the morning.

Amelia on the 'wailing wall' so called because she's been there for days just crying but won't fly.

Volunteers: Nate and Jack starting duty this morning.

Finally, Charlie is found. Isn't he pretty? He sat in this spot all morning on the west side of the Temple.

I believe this is Mom, keeping watch over Charlie, just above him.

Volunteers: Cindy and Pomera keeping track of Charlie.

The guy on the left is Bob Walters, the one who organizes all of us and kept Sally overnight. Volunteer June is seated

All the volunteers meeting up for a break. On the right of this picture just across the street is the brick building Bobbi sat on all day yesterday and where she got picked up by a construction worker after flying into the pit.

This is Sally, who once again is sleeping at Bob's house because she can't stop crashing into buildings. This is just before taking her up to be released this morning at 9:15 am.

This is Sally after being released and immediately flying off Beehive, looping once with adults and crashing into this building and sliding down to this sill at 9:25

Guess who? Sally of course, after glancing off JSMB, she is now sitting on Admin Bldg with what looks like a hurt wing, now at 10:20.

Amelia, who would get up and move to shade every 5 minutes as it moved along this wall. When she got within 10 squares of the street, she got up and flew over to the wall in picture below.

Larger view North, note the map I refer to a lot and this is also the 'wailing wall'. Yes, Amelia is in this photo just at the edge of the shade.

This is the view looking East (I was on 10th fl of JSMB, the Admin Bldg is just across and there is Sally, sitting about 1/3 of the distance over on the edge going south.

Amelia, who finally flew off the wall!

Amelia, back up on the wall, under her favorite lamp. She sat in this spot a lot yesterday too.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Peregrine = Pilgrim = Wanderer

Well, Charlie the wanderer has been found. Great news! More details tomorrow. In the meantime, I wanted to feature a French blog about Peregrines that belongs to a reader, A. Yassin who left a comment asking me if banding was the same as ringing, their term for IDing the falcons. Please take a stop by his blog, these photos make mine look ridiculous. They are incredible. Peregrine in French is Pelerins. Depending on your browser, there is a translate button at the top of the page that changes it all to English. Amazing. Well done, Yassin!

http://fauconline.blogspot.com/

Still No Sign of Charlie

The photos below show the three female fledglings resting on different buildings around Temple Square. Charlie is still not accounted for. There was one report from a woman who thought she saw him on the ground/grass this morning near the Temple but we haven't found him. Right before I came home today, about 12:30, Amelia decided to fly off her spot on COB and land on what is known as the Relief Society Building which is a bit lower and just next to it on the west side. She made her way north and gave everyone a scare that she would fly into the street on North Temple Street but after about 45 minutes went back to her original position you see in this photo below. The adults seemed to get active checking on all three babies at that same time and there was a lot of flyovers and calling plus some possible food drops. Bobbi spent too much time ACROSS the street on a building that is very close to construction cadillac-ing. It made everyone very nervous but at the time I left Bobbi had moved back to the North side of that building which at least puts her closer to Temple Square but still makes everyone worry she could fly into the traffic on South Temple Street.

What does 'cadillac-ing' mean? When the falcons are resting on their stomach, their tail feathers look like the rear end of a cadillac, with fenders.

Amelia 'cadillac-ed' on SW corner of COB west wing.

Sally cadillac-ed on south side of Beehive on JSMB.

Adult doing flyover trying to get Sally and Bobbi to move/fly?

Sally vocalizing for food/adult, can hear adult calling.

Bobbi cadillac-ed on SE corner of low building next to Eagle Gate Tower. Lots of construction immediately to the south. Stayed in this position from 8am to 1:30p.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Crazy Day!

I tried so hard to be on the grounds by 6am so that I wouldn't miss another fledge. I arrived at 6:05 to find out that bird #2 had flown out of box at 5:57. Darn. I had no idea that there would be another one fledging just 15 minutes or so later. Nor were any of us expecting #4 to FALL out of the box at 11am!

Below are pictures of just #2, Charlie, being found, banded and released. My camera battery died around 10, so I missed the next two. I will be back downtown for more monitoring of flights tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Charlie under the tree near the World Map on the COB.

Charlie on his back before being banded. He fought a bit.


Charlie after banding.

Amelia, fledge#1 sat on this scallop from 6am to 2pm screaming for food. She was finally fed about 2:30.

Charlie on roof of JSMB after banding and being released.

Big Oops Video

Thank you to Mary Ann, SkygirlBlue at Bird Cams of the World for capturing the video of the 4th bird slipping out of the nest box. http://youtu.be/fJopu_elYXs

Here she is, Bobby, resting on the sill on the north side of JSMB, very close to ground level.
She is banded and has been put up on Beehive along with #3, Sally. My SLR camera battery died this morning so all my photos are off my phone, so not the best.

Morning cam photos

These are not the best but gives a glimpse. Fledgling 3 in  last two photos above works map. Amelia on  tip of scallop, in first photo screaming for food.

Amelia waiting to be fed.
Sally on Church Office Building (COB)
Sally

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Notes from July 6: If you watch the first flight video closely you will see the first fledge made it to the top of that white building on the first try. That is hard to do, she is very strong flyer for how big she is. She landed on the roof then hopped up to the ledge where she sat for an hour or more, walking east and west then heading south on the ledge. A few Lesser Finches buzzed her head a couple times. As she moved south on the building there was great worry that she would fly off into the traffic on South Temple Street. She did take off headed in that direction, everyone scrambled. She landed on a ledge down by the gardens, but high enough ledge that Bob had to get a maintenance ladder, climb up the 6 feet or so and grab her. She didn't fight. There was a mob of people who wanted to get a view so Bob took her, in the box, over to the JSMB building foyer, closed off the doors and allowed 5 or 6 people at a time to step in, look, and snap a picture before he banded her. Quickly thereafter, security escorted Bob up to the top of the Beehive and put her out on the ledge. Of course immediately she heads south on that ledge, towards traffic. Everyone scrambled over to the street but eventually she ended back over on the North side, facing the gardens and tucked into a curlee cue on the face.

There was one point when a seagull flew through the grounds and got too close to her as she sat on the admin bldg this morning. The father swooped in from the tall Eagle Gate Building and looked to about kill the gull, full attack. The gull high tailed it out of there fast. When I left, the other young were starting to hang out on the nestbox ledge again and female adult was bringing food. We never saw parents feed the first fledge though. I took time to go up to the observation deck with a tour guide and snapped pictures of the whole grounds and caught a shot of the female storing up some pigeons on the ledge outside the nestbox (maybe for easy access during the night). It was a great day. I will be back on the Square EARLY hoping to see the next one fledge in the morning. Shout out to all my friends on BCAW who let me post their videos today and tweeted updates about what was going on in the nest when I couldn't see.

Just 30 min or so after first flight.

Looking North. Nest box is to the bird's left.

The three left behind watching all the activity.

After flying along south along the west side of Admin Bldg, she lands on a sill.

Bob climbs up on a ladder to retrieve her.

Measuring and banding in JSMB vestibule.

Bob takes her up to the top of the Beehive and releases on the North side.

View of nesbox from 36 floors up. Click on any pic to see larger. Note dead pigeons on corner. Adults' food stash.

View of the Beehive on top of JSMB.

Late afternoon hang out. Three left in box.
Full view of west side of grounds. Beehive is on left on top of Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Temple is to the center of picture and a favorite destination of the falcons.

First fledge on left side of the spade shaped scroll, in the curlee cue getting shade. Click on picture to see larger. Bird is in front of red, white and blue shield.

Video of First Flight

Skygirlblue caught the first flight this morning and posted on YouTube. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6XSahTHjus

John Oligschlaeger provided these pictures of banding which happened around 11:30 after the bird flew off the Admin Bldg and landed on a sill by one of the columns. I will post photos of the capture when I get home.



First Out!!

Fist bird out 6:18. Sorry for the quality of this mobile photo.


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Today's Pictures

I arrived at Temple Square around 7:15 this morning and left about 1:00 pm. There were some adult flights, with the first being both parents landing close to the nest box. Not sure if the construction that started today made them nervous but there was a phone call from one viewer saying that they felt the kids were more restless or nervous today, but that could be due to 'its time to fledge' jitters. The adults then hung out on the tall Eagle Gate Building for the rest of the morning. There was one flight into the box where an adult landed on a kids head. Not sure what happened there. Almost seemed like a message to the kid to get back in the box a bit, stop messing around. Who knows. I am including the link to the video which comes via skygirlblue on the Bird Cams Around the World website. I will be back down on the grounds early tomorrow, I certainly don't want to miss the first fledge! Gotta be soon! Make sure to follow the Twitter feed for updates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9xLS_Rtifc&feature=player_embedded

Two adults up on scallops.



Monday, July 4, 2011

From Falcon Central

I spent 5 hours down at Temple Square with not much activity from kids or parents. One meal was brought in before 8am but it was small and only seemed to feed one or two of the young. Note: I was told that the adults beginning withholding food, partly to urge them to leave the nest but mostly to help them shed their baby weight to levels that help with flight. There were enough volunteers that I came home. It likely there will be no fledges today. I will go back in the morning. Watch the cameras early in the morning for possible first fledge. You can click on the pictures to make even larger.

The four Young of the Year
Adults watching nest from high on Eagle Gate Building

Sunday, July 3, 2011

So Ready!

The big guy in the front, the one who's lost all his white, downy feathers, looks ready to go!

HELL WEEK is HERE!

If you've been watching the cams, it appears that one of the kids is about to fly the nest! All hands on deck. Looking for volunteers this week. Give Bob Walters or me a call: Bob 801-209-5326 or Liz 801-493-5932 and we will explain how you can help.

Updates from my twitter account as well http://twitter.com/LizATtheMorsel all day.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Dinner, Thursday Night plus Wing Flapping

A couple videos for your enjoyment. Video 1 is dinner arriving. Video 2 one kid practicing take off. Video 3 more wing flapping. Launch day is closing in!