A Lot of Activity Today

Spirit (09/Y) was the juvenile that fledged this morning.

About 10 a.m. I received a call from Josh Williams from the Ohio Senate Office. He reported that a co-worker, Jason Phillips, noticed a peregrine just outside on a windowsill. He was able to give me the band number. The bird was not injured so I opted to capture her and place her back on the nest ledge. Thanks to Jason and Josh for taking notice and contacting me.

The capture happened without incident. I got back up to the 41st floor of the Rhodes Tower about 11 a.m. It is a bit tricky to put a falcon back out on the ledge when you know another fledgling is out there because you don't want to accidently cause the other bird to flush from the ledge. I looked out the door and saw Scout on top of the nestbox (squawking at full volume since she knew I was there!). At this point I had another potential danger: there was a chance that Scout would attack the bird as I put it back out. Scout wasn't about to leave so, I had to move slowly. I put Spirit in the doorway so she and Scout could see each other and simply closed the door. After a moment she hopped up on top of the nestbox with Scout. Mission accomplished successfully!

Fast forward to just after lunch. In the midst of trying to update the blog I got another call from downtown about a falcon on the sidewalk in front of the Rhodes Tower. Unfortunately this story doesn't end so well. It was Swoop (08/Y) and from reports it sounded like she was exercising on the ledge and then was gone from the ledge. Other accounts indicate she fell down to the ground with little or no flapping. As I have reported many times, flapping is instinctual so the fact that this bird came straight down would indicate there may have been another underlying issue. A necropsy will likely be done.

So, a busy day. Swoop's absence will be noticed much more by all of the fans out there watching than it will be by Scout and Trooper. They concentrate on what they see at the moment and so will focus all of their attention on Spirit. Hopefully she will be well fed and thus will wait to leave the ledge until she is good and ready.