Bonnie & I were downtown today from about 2:30 - 5:00, and had quite an exciting time!! It all started with Bonnie's car and a thunderstorm arriving in JC at the same time! The cloud-to-ground lightning was intense, with huge bolts every few seconds! If the buildings in JC weren't the ones getting hit, the ones in lower Manhattan had to of been. The storm ended fairly soon after we arrived though, and the weather had improved alot (still humid, but much cooler and breezy).
We initially saw the female fledgling on one of the lower ledges on the south side of 10 Exchange Place. We moved to the waterfront but she was gone. We had quick glimpses of a falcon(s) swinging out from behind the west side of 10 Exchange and disappearing back. So we moved west to the corner of Hudson & Montgomery St (near the front entrance of 101 Hudson).
After not seeing anyone for a bit, I noticed a dark shape on a lower building across the street by the Lite-rail station, which turned out to be Six! He had some company in the form of a grackle or starling that was not at all happy to see him!! Six paid little attention to his little noisy neighbor, and after some stretching, took off heading north over Hudson St. He started soaring over Columbus Ave. just NW of 10 Exchange. He then began making some low passes over the various roof areas on the west side of the building (not aggressive, more like trying to coax someone to fly!). He then returned to 101 Hudson.
Shortly afterward, 1, then 2 falcons came off the west side of 10 Exchange, and began chasing each other and playing talon-tag!! We got our cameras up and starting snapping away. Upon zooming in on our pics (and viewing through binoculars), we saw to our great delight that the falcons were the 2 surviving kids!!!!
They had flappy flight (haven't learned to glide properly yet), but they showed some nice agility and ability to stay airborne for good amounts of time! They made multiple landings on the upper ledges of 10 Exchange, and one of them even landed atop the high spire on the east side of the building! They made a few flights out along the shoreline of the river and over the Hyatt hotel that sticks out into the river, as well as a few passes near 101 Hudson. Both were on the southeast area of 10 Exchange when we left.
Being a weekday, we met lots of people, and were glad that many got to see the falcons in action! When we left at 5 p.m., the sun was out but storm clouds were looming in the distance, and we drove into storm #2 once west of the Garden State Parkway (but thankfully we were already past the flood-prone roadways!), and I just heard from Bonnie that she made it home safely.
She's had to do all the driving this year and I'm incredibly grateful to her!!
No strong wind or hail with the storms around here (Weschester county in NY where Bonnie's from got hit harder I think), and both had brief torrential rain, but the lightning stole the [weather] show!!
Going to go through my pictures this evening and probably have them posted in the morning. I learned quite a lesson about camera settings during Athena's hunt on Sunday, and despite tough lighting again today, these pics came out considerably better (sunlight coming in under the clouds later on helped alot too). Bonnie took a ton of pics as well, and can't wait to see those too!
Continuing to keep fingers and toes crossed for the 2 kids!!
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I sent the email to Mick at DEP. Just thinking out loud here, but wonder if it was the one that went to 10 Exchange Place last Thursday.
