Three of a kind Photo by Cleve Nash
Wind has been the order for the last few days. First from here, then from there and very little break in between.
Yes, there are three young chicks you see in the photo by Cleve Nash taken this morning, in a twenty mile per hour breeze from east to west. When I asked Cleve for a photo of the baby falcons for this posting, he warned me, “It might be fuzzy because of the wind.”
About 10:00AM we seemed to have an opportunity when the wind changes direction and reverses now, west to east. We get a little lull, but then the young falcons disappear. By 10:45AM and the wind has picked up to 40 mph, they want to come out to see what is going on. Cooperation between birds, wind and photographer can be challenging.
The third chick, seen here on the left, although it’s not readily apparent, seems to have more down compared to the other two. It may be a couple days younger than the other two. The two darker ones have ventured over to the mother’s perching spot on the left side of the eyrie (not shown in this photo). To get there, they had to make a small jump and I think they surprised themselves. One strong flap and they were up on the sloping rock.
Their wing feathers and tail are fully developed. They just look ungainly because of the down still clinging to them in obvious spots. Remember, these birds should fly in 12 days, that’s June, the first, if our calculations are somewhere close.
Happy trails, Bob
Item:
None of us here at the rock have given up on a fourth chick.
Great work guys, keep up the good work
Thanks, Paul. We do it for all of you out there because we want to share our excitement about the saga of these handsome birds. ~Heather