I opened the door a half hour ago and got an instant flashback. I don’t know where it is and the city’s emergency warning system has not sent out automated calls. But the smell was heavy in the air–there was a fire out there somewhere. There’s also a stiff breeze going on, and I don’t smell it now.
We never had fire season growing up in Maryland, that’s for sure.
We also never had peregrines that I knew of. Today the falcon fledge watch has officially begun in San Jose. I saw one of the females perched up on the low ledge above their runway near the top of City Hall, looking out over the city. Her sister stayed just below her, and as the one turned her head this way and that, looking out at such a whole new direction to take in–down–her sister started pecking at her toes.
Like siblings everywhere, the one above reacted with, Stop that! She twitched her foot away, and when she set it back down, the other started pecking away at it again: are you sure that talon isn’t a tasty bug? And again, till finally that huge falcon foot pushed carefully slowly against the other’s head and away from her: I. Said. STOP. That. NOW.
A few more pecks from below just to get the last word in.
Veer, the lone male of the four, disappeared from the camera for long hours yesterday. Males are smaller, so their feathers become fully grown out a little sooner; he’s easy to pick out from the crowd, small, dark and smooth, while the others still have a few puffs of white fuzz sticking out at funny angles, although, fewer by the hour now. When Veer was banded, they put a black band on his left foot, the opposite side from his sisters.
This afternoon, all four were in the nest box. He flew out of it, looking steady and sure as he went, baby awkwardness gone. He instantly disappeared out of view of the webcam; I don’t know if he stayed in their runway area.
All three females cocked their head to the side in lockstep unison, then further over to the side as they watched him go: how off earth did he DO that?
They will find out in the next day or two.