6/15, Five Falcons in the Family

Walking over to Riverside Church after Monday's rain I first noticed a falcon perched on the edge of the scaffolding walkway 20 feet away from the scrape. It seemed likely that it was a nestling as the adults have been more likely to perch on the scaffolding railings. As I changed viewing positions, I lost track of the nestling, but then discovered an adult on a pipe at the NE corner of the walkway. And then four other falcons progressively appeared, making it three babies and two proud and protective parents.

Of the four along the walkway, mom was second from left. She soon took off and returned to land on a pipe 10 feet above her mate's head. Then he took off, apparently to perform familial duties as he did not return in the next 20-25 minutes.

The scene seemed to be the falcon version of branching. The three youngsters wandered around the walkway, sometimes almost all the way back to the scrape and sometimes to the corner right below mom's perch.

At least two of them did some vigorous wing flapping. A couple times I thought I might witness an inadvertent fledging as one of them flapped while right on the edge of walk.

The flapping indicated that the two and possibly all three had not fledged. A neighborhood falcon watcher who passed by said that in the past, the Riverside falcons have been very regular about fledging on or very close to June 21. So in all likelihood it's just a few more days.