Where are the chicks and what will their names be?

Don't panic if you look at the nestbox and it is empty...the chicks are quickly gaining their mobility and may have just walked outside of the nestbox, out of view of the camera. In this picture you can see their fuzzy heads on the "porch" out in front of the nestbox. (Thanks to a great falcon fan, Jim Woods in Oregon, for supplying me with this picture!)

If you look closely at the ledge view you will notice that the nestbox actually sets down in a recessed area of the ledge. The upper part of the ledge is a good 10 inches higher than where the nestbox is and at this young age the chicks cannot make it up that "step" so there is no danger of them getting anywhere close to the actual edge of the ledge where they might fall off.

We received 1833 votes and the winning names are:
Boomer
Mistic
Justice
Columbus

Thanks to all who voted!
I've gotten a couple of emails about "Mistic" being spelled "wrong." Keep in mind that the names are submitted by elementary school kids and the spelling might not always be what we'd expect. Sometimes there is an actual error and sometimes the kids have their own take on the spelling. In most cases we leave the names "as submitted."

Tomorrow I will be meeting with our video crew to finalize plans to broadcast the banding over the streaming video on our website. I will post any updates that web viewers will need to know either tomorrow or Wednesday morning.