We have lift-off again, but who?

At around 5:30 AM today, another eyass fledged and flew the short distance down from the nest into the tree on the corner of Winter and 21st Streets. Most likely, this was yesterday's #3 who had stayed on the nest all day Monday watching the drama unfold below of the grounded eyass and its rescue.  This eyass had looked energetic, frequently flapping and jumping on the nest yesterday.

Carolyn Sutton, hawk follower extraordinaire who spent most of yesterday down on Winter St. keeping track of the action, was there again early this morning, witnessed the fledge, and caught this glimpse of today's nest jumper in its tree.

The eyass who remained on the nest today (Tuesday) seemed much less active, and was probably the grounded eyass rescued yesterday by Rick Schubert who noted that its feathers were not fully developed for flight.  Throughout today, this eyass sat on the nest, ate when food was dropped off by a haggard, but seemed content to lie low.

The eyass that fledged first on Sunday, known as #1, was located this morning on the mezzanine roof of the old school district building (now apartments) next to the Franklin Institute on the other side of 21st Street.

Linda White's image shows it sitting on the edge of the mezzanine roof. 

John Blakeman analysed the size and shape of its feet and ankles (tarsi) from various photographs, and is pretty certain that #1 is a tiercel (male).  He had also already concluded that there is a least one formel (female) among the three.

An apartment dweller came down to tell Carolyn and Linda that he had just watched this eyass eat heartily from a food drop by one of the parents.  It's good to know that #1 has been fed since he fledged, and that the haggards know exactly where he is.

#1 then found a sunny corner in which to stretch out and sleep off his breakfast.  His head is facing into the wall, and the tail is towards us with the wing tips poking up a little.

Linda also photographed the newly fledged eyass testing out its arboreal environment, hopping and flapping from branch to branch, and steadily making its way up the tree to the topmost branches....

... where it settled...

... and took stock of the situation.

Then with some vigorous flaps, it got ready to launch...

... and headed across 21st Street to a tree on Winter Street very close to the apartment building where its sibling was napping.

From a slightly different angle, Mary Gamble Barrett caught the moment of take-off as the newly fledged eyass flew strongly on its way to the tree across Winter Street.

This eyass's behavior, energetic, intentional and able to climb and fly, was in stark contrast to yesterday's fledged eyass who made no attempt to get off the ground, and sought only to find a safe spot to hide - first the lily patch, and then the Franklin Institute doorway - as close to the nest as it could get.  It is extremely unlikely that this eyass could transform in 14 hours to today's tree-climbing flyer.

So it seems that perhaps the youngest eyass mistakenly left the nest yesterday when it was nowhere near ready to fly.  If that is the case, it spent today very appropriately resting up after its ordeal, while its two older fledged siblings stayed relatively close, and all three were under the experienced supervision of the haggards.

Darryl Moran, the official Franklin Institute photographer, has generously allowed me to share the pictures he took yesterday documenting Rick Schubert's rescue and return of the eyass to the nest.  (Read the previous blog post for a more detailed account.)

Rick makes netting the downed hawk look so easy.

His assistant prepares to place the hood over the eyass's head...

... and now the eyass is calm and much less stressed.

Rick, a gifted teacher, explains the procedure to the onlookers...

... and then eases the hawk into a cardboard animal carrier to take it up to the Board Room.

Inside the Board Room, the Franklin Institute staff lift out the window pane that was specially designed for quick access to the nest, while Rick removes the hood from the eyass....

... and takes it out of the box.

The eyass is slipped through the window and put back on the nest....

.... where its sibling waits with a late lunch item.

Darryl also took pictures of eyass #1 showing off its oh-so-recently acquired landing and take-off skills.

It's astonishing how fierce and mature these eyasses can look one minute...

... and then so young and uncertain the next.

Eyass #1 is waving from the current epicenter of hawkdom!

Once again, I must thank these most talented photographers - Linda White, Mary Gamble Barret, Carolyn Sutton and Darryl Moran - for generously sharing their images.

Finally, a couple of factoids from Google analytics: over the past four days the daily readership of this blog has exploded from 226, 815, 1553, to 1901 on Tuesday!   While by far the largest group of Franklin Institute hawk enthusiasts comes from the United States, other countries with significant interest are Australia, Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Poland, France, Italy and Brazil.

Our hawks are gaining an international following!