Jet back on ledge

An exciting first day on the job for our summer intern, Jesse McCarter, who assisted me with Jet's return to the wilds of downtown Columbus. Since all of the other fledglings were gone we were able to put her back out at the nest ledge. Were there any nestlings remaining on the ledge this release location wouldn't have been possible without potentially bumping one of the other birds off the ledge prematurely. In that case we would have put her out up on the roof of the building. But, ideally the nest ledge was the best place as being in familiar territory we were hoping she'd stay put for awhile before venturing back out into the skies over downtown.

Looking out the peephole from inside I could see an adult on the ledge. It turned out to be Scout. Hearing me explaining the process to Jesse, she started squawking. With her out there the plan mostly stayed the same, except Jesse would have to wait until another time to take in the view.

After a quick photo I took the bird from Jesse and he opened the door. I didn't check the time but it was likely about 3:45 in the afternoon. I put her down on her belly facing towards the building and then we quickly closed the door and hoped she'd stay put. Now that I'm back to the office I see she's still on the platform so it looks like things worked out the way we intended. Let's hope she can get the hang of landing the next time she flies!