Could be a cold night…

Observation date:  30 May 2018

The fledging of young falcons was completed today with the young shy female taking her first flight at 6AM in a light breeze. The male chick had fledged Saturday, the 27th, just 44 days from hatching. 

The young male has flown like a journeyman from the start. He sticks about fifty percent of his landings from day one. On his second day of flight, he was seen by many of us chasing his father  over the top and around the cliff faces of Morro Rock never more than fifty feet behind him. His turns are not as sharp yet, but give him another week. Both of the adult falcons have been flying in front of him with bird kills trying to get him to fly up and take the prey away, but he hasn’t done this yet. 

Young female waiting for courage                                  Photo by Bob Isenberg

The young female is another story. Even though she has flown today she is much further behind in all aspects. After two short flights with an hours rest between each, she made a longer flight landing on a steep face 200 yards from the nest site. She has been there for 9 hours. Caryl Pearson, one of our falcon watchers, has been camped out underneath her all day. At 6:30PM, Carol and I watched the adult female make many passes near the chick vocalizing then landing near her. In the past, I have seen parents knock them off to make them fly. I’ll be there in the morning. I hope to see her and not a pile of feathers.*

Happy trails, Bob

Item: *This is when they are most vulnerable to predators like foxes and Great Horned Owls.

P.S. I held posting this story until I found out what had happened to the young female. After 32 hours of clinging to cliff faces, she made it back home. All were there to greet her.