Two Peregrine Falcon eyasses became fledglings early this morning. It was unclear to me who went first. One ended up on the roof of 530 West End Avenue and the other ended up on a windowsill on the same building.

The one of the roof disappeared from view before 9 am. It made a strong flight around the church tower but then it became unclear where it went. I might have gone far.

The one on the windowsill stayed put, even sleeping for a long period. It was still there when I left around 1:00.

Two eyasses remain on the nest and the parents stayed close by the nest.

I’m going to go back tonight after the brief rain storm is forecast and give another report.

Over the last few days, the parents have switched from feeding the eyasses pigeon, to just delivering sparrows one at a time to each eyass. It’s the logical transition from feeding them to getting them ready to eat on their own. I couldn’t stay long but they’re looking very close to fledging.

The West End Peregrines eyasses look to be in their final week on the nest. (I’m going away on Friday, so I hope to see them fledge before I leave for two weeks.)

The parents are hunting in view of the eyasses and seem to be showing them “what to do”. The parents behavior switched as soon as the eyasses lost their downy feathers.

The eyasses are also flapping their wings more and have begun to make short flights. The tower has four main ledges, and now rather than run inside the tower to change ledges, they make short flights to get to the next one.

This is my first time spending more than one or two visits at a Peregrine Falcon nest, so I’m not sure what happens next. It’s a lot of fun observing behavior and seeing what comes next.

One of the eyasses at the 86th and West End Peregrine Falcon nest wouldn’t stop crying for food today. It just cried and cried. However, it looked as though it had a full crop, so it seemed like it was crying for no good reason!

The adult male was on guard duty while I was there, although he did hunt a number of times. He caught a pigeon, but the bird escaped from him before he could kill it.

As I was packing up all four eyasses were visible.

The Peregrine Falcon eyasses at 86th and West End are starting to look better each day. They’ve lost almost all of their downy feathers and they are starting to look like they will be ready to fledge soon. I think the tails seem a bit short but other than that they look good.

A few of them also stated to perch rather than sit, and have begun to exercise their wings. I’m amazed at how fast they can flap their wings. It seems about twice as fast as a Red-tailed Hawk eyass.

I got up early to see if I could catch a feeding of the youngsters, but they had already been fed when I arrived. I think I have to get there before dawn to catch it.

I did get to watch a parent eat a pigeon and see a few of the eyasses however. They’ve lost most of their downy feathers and are looking a lot less awkward.