Saturday revealed that the cathedral red-tail nestlings are getting more interested in the outside world and more desirous of visiting it. Bruce visited before I did, and reported similar activity to what I saw in the early evening.
On a hot, muggy and gloomy evening, first hawk sighting was of mama Isolde perched across the street at the hospital. No sign of the kestrel, but she seems to be oriented so that she can watch for attacks from the west.
One nestling was up in the nest, and then a few minutes later both were side-by-side.
Head feathers are coming in on both of them, but they still look a little scruffy and scrawny, with skinny heads like partially feathered lizards.
One sat down for a bit.
They both fussed about for ten or fifteen minutes, during which mama flew off somewhere. But then one started testing its wings. First stretch a bit.
Try standing close to the edge of the nest. "Oh, hey, balancing is tricky out here." Flap, flap.
The sibling watched from behind, perhaps evincing as much bemusement as hawk nestlings can.
"Aggh, I want back in the nest!"
A couple minutes later there was short repeat episode.
"Okay, that's enough. Let's just watch things for a while."
And then they settled down.
P.S. Passed by the nest sight on Sunday at 5:30, just before the cloudburst. One of the parents was on the chimney cover at St. Luke's, taken strafing runs from the kestrel. Both nestlings were apparently resting in the nest.
No comments:
Post a Comment