Happy Sunday!
I went to JC this morning from 8:30 - 11 a.m., and chose the corner of Hudson St. and Pearl St. as my perch (2 blocks north of 101 Hudson). Upon arriving, I spotted 3 falcons on 10 Exchange Place (just northeast of 101 Hudson). Athena was perched at the very top of the concrete “spike” on the east side of the building; Six & Libby were perched on the west side of the building, about 3 tiers down from the top (I believe this is one tier lower than where they were back on Tuesday).
Around 8:40 a.m., a fledgling flew from Exchange over to 101 Hudson, actually went completely around it, then returned to Exchange, on the NW corner of the 2nd tier down (the Tuesday tier). The fledgling took off a few minutes later, chasing Athena off the spike and west to Greene St. (flight-distance of a little over a block). It was then that I saw the fledgling was Hudson! Athena landed on a 39th floor ledge at 101, under the east bracket (a favorite perching spot). Hudson came in right behind her and chased her off again. He stayed at the ledge, while Athena flew back to her spike perch at 10 Exchange.
Around 9 a.m., Hudson flew back to his tier #2 perch at 10 Exchange, while Libby became visible on the west edge of tier #3. Six appeared, swooped low over the top of Exchange, then flew to 101 Hudson & landed on the east bracket. The whole family was in view at this time!!
Six left to hunt just before 10 a.m., heading north and passing almost directly overhead. Athena took a few flights out and around 101 Hudson, always returning to her favorite perch back at Exchange. Hudson did quite a bit of flying as well, circling around 10 Exchange several times. After awhile, he spend some time with his sister on tier #3, and both were out of view for quite while.
Around 10:25, Hudson took off motoring west over Montgomery St. (along the north side of 101). He flew what seemed like almost half a block west of Greene St. before turning back (flight distance of a little over 1.5 blocks before the turn-around). Six had returned (empty-taloned), but Hudson still chased his dad around 101 Hudson twice! Hudson landed on a 41st floor parapet on the very NW corner of 101 (around a corner from the scrape), while Six landed on a 39th floor parapet on the east side of 101. During this time, Libby was watching the action and actually flappercising, but chose to stay put. Hudson then flew around the south side of 101, briefly landed on the east side of the building, then returned to 10 Exchange in a glide. Six left to resume the hunt sometime after 10:30, but I missed his exit.
When I left at 11, Libby had moved away from the ledge, Hudson was preening on the NW corner of tier #2, and Athena was on her spike perch, also preening.
Interesting that Libby just did the flapping. She was definitely interested when Hudson rocketed off on his big westward flight over Montgomery. It’s now got me agonizing over Tuesday’s observations: was it really her? I still could swear there was a noticeable size difference between Six and that fledgling (they were around 5.5 weeks old by that point : perfect for a male to fledge, but still a few days up to a whole week early for a female). 2 scenarios I can think of are:
1) it was Libby, and she probably fledged by accident (updraft or freak gust of wind took her off 101 while flappercising on a ledge, and she managed to make it over to Exchange Place before loosing too much altitude). By yesterday (Bonnie pretty much certainly did see them both) she’d either fluttered or took a small flight down to tier #3, is still shy about flying and feels safer just chilling out. Or….
2) my eyes were toying with me, and it was actually Hudson I saw on Tuesday. Thus, he fledged about on time. His sister probably fledged either very early yesterday morning, or late on Friday, and perhaps is still cautious about flying, and just resting up.
I’ll try to get back down sometime during the week, and will hopefully see both of them flying. In any event, Hudson looks like he’s been on the wing for quite a few days now. His flight is quite strong, his landings at several different spots at 101 & 10 Exchange were impressive (still a little shaky, but good to see him having success multiple times on 2 buildings!). Good boy!
A few pictures are coming later. Lighting was tough (lots of high, thin clouds….filtered the light + turned the sky a milky white). Might switch the pics to black-and-white, sometimes they come out better like that on days like this.
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FAQ
no cam. Found the date on the new river gorge hack. 2009. Article and pics were posted in jan 2010.
