FledgeWatch Day 1 Update
On a very hot day in Richmond, the two young peregrine falcons have both successfully flown from their natal building. The pen door was opened remotely at 9:30 a.m., and within 3 minutes one of the birds had already made a short flight and then alighted back on the ledge around the corner from the nest box. She was soon joined on the ledge by her sibling, who did not fly. The juvenile with the yellow tape flew more decisively from that building at 11:48 a.m., and, after a few failed landing attempts on nearby buildings, chose as her perch spot for the next few hours an actively moving crane towering over a nearby construction site. Her sibling flew at 11:52 a.m., unsuccessfully trying to follow the adult male to a favored perch site on a building sign. After a brief visit back to the Riverfront Plaza West Tower, this juvenile bird flew again and landed on a large air handling unit on a building in the vicinity of the crane, where she was out of sight for the majority of the observation period to follow. At 2:30 p.m. the yellow-taped bird flew from the crane to the nearby Dominion Building, and left again an hour later, performing a series of short flights to and from nearby buildings. She was eventually observed on an I-beam at the construction site, where she remained for some time before flying out of sight. The FledgeWatch ended at 6 p.m. and will resume tomorrow morning, as DWR personnel and volunteers will monitor the young birds once more to ensure that they are both flying and landing consistently and without problems. A big thank you to the four volunteers who participated in today’s FledgeWatch!