Fledgewatch June 10th Updates
7:50 AM: We will have staff arriving on site within the hour so stay tuned for updates from day two of Fledgewatch. We are starting the day with Plum still on the nest box, having recently been fed by one of the adults around 7 am this morning. Once on site, we will attempt to locate White and Black, and continue monitoring the three birds.
As a quick reminder, Plum is roughly four days younger than her brothers and female falcons which are larger and heavier are typically slower to fledge than males. With this in mind, we are not concerned by the fact that she did not fledge yesterday. Hopefully we will see some action from her today!
10:45 AM: Upon our arrival we received a volunteer report that Black was atop the Federal Reserve (thanks, Lisa!). This was quickly confirmed by staff. The fact that he is perched at this height is incredibly promising as this is one of the highest buildings in the immediate area. White was picked up in flight around Truist with an adult around 10:30 am. After a few circles, he had a smooth landing on Bank of America where he stayed for a short period of time before taking flight again. He was re-spotted shortly after, perched on the west facing side of the HCA building. Plum remains on the nest box, where she appears to be enjoying the fact that she’s no longer sharing a room with her brothers.
4:00 PM: White has been observed in flight and landing well multiple times throughout the day. We’re feeling incredibly optimistic about his skills based on our observations. Black has not moved from the Federal Reserve roof for the duration of the day. He’s had multiple prey deliveries brought to him there and while we haven’t seen flight yet today, we remain happy with his location. Plum fledged around 12:30 pm and after circling around, attempted to land back on Riverfront Tower. She became grounded due to her inability to access a good perch along the tower faces. Staff responded and captured her within minutes, ultimately taking her back up to the roof and putting her back in the pen. After a few minutes she went off the ledge and flew in the direction of the HCA building. Our view of her likely landing was blocked due to some structures atop the roof but based on our observations and some of the adults behaviors, we suspect she is likely still be on this roof.
At this point due to incoming rain and road closures downtown, we are going to stop monitoring for the day but will return for tomorrow in hopes to see Black and Plum in flight.