6/25, Rooftop Chorus

Wednesday evening, the three cathedral fledges all perched close together and tried to sing for their dinner. Unfortunately, mama did not respond with food.

First sighting was a fledgling playing around on the hospital roof between the Plant and Minturn pavilions. After disappearing from view for a few minutes he popped back up and flew across the street to a rooftop turret along the cathedral apse.

A second fledgling had appeared 100 feet to the west on the crossing arch.

Then mama Isolde appeared and landed on a nave spire.

Two fledges got excited, and the one on the turret flew over to the roof of the nave below Isolde's perch. But even as he was in the air, she took off and started circling overhead.

As she circled, another bird appeared in the air. The third fledgling.

But after a half minute of circling, Isolde headed out. The three fledges all ended up perched along the crossing arch.

Every now and again, one would hop down into the low area between the arch and the crossing dome, then after a bit re-appear a bit further up the arch.

There were scattered begging noises as all this went on.

Eventually all three fledges were perched side by side.

And the singing... er, begging... got louder and more frequent, sometimes two together.

It turned out that mama Isolde was perched across the street on the high chimney at the hospital. And she was studiously ignoring the kids. The father came buzzing overhead at one point, too, but he ignored everybody and just kept flying south.

After a good half hour of this, the fledge on the left finally decided to make some effort. It took to the air, with the fledge in the middle in close pursuit. They landed above the hospital entrance, on the cap where the dome used to be, and started poking around. Perhaps they found some food scraps, as they hunched over one spot for some time. Meanwhile, mama was suffering strafing passes from one of the neighborhood kestrels.

Eventually I had to leave. Looking back from Amsterdam, it appeared that all three hawks on the hospital roof had also made an exit.