As always, I really appreciate the other hawk fans who capture so many fantastic images of the hawks, and generously share their work.
Two weeks after leaving the nest, the Franklin Institute eyasses are flying strongly...
... and walking strongly!
This year, more than any year previously, the eyasses seem precocious in their strength, flying skills, and speed of figuring out how to cope with life away from the nest.
Mom and T2 are doing a great job in providing food drops in various spots, and keeping track as the eyasses explore an ever-widening area.
The goal each day for the early morning hawkstalkers is to sight all three eyasses. It is easy to accomplish that when they gather together on the roof of the Franklin Institute, and wait for their breakfast food drop.
As best we can tell, they are roosting most nights in the trees by the Barnes Museum. Occasionally, one appears from a ledge on the Franklin Institute. One of the eyasses, nicknamed "the nesthugger," seems particularly drawn to the nest.
We don't know for sure if this is the same one that spent several nights back there after fledging, but pretty much every morning, there is an eyass on the nest at some point, or very close by.
Most mornings, the haggards can be found on the roof pediments of the Central Library or the Family Court buildings...
... or on the street lights below.
They are waiting for the rats to appear that live in a network of holes and tunnels alongside the Vine Street Expressway that runs beneath those pediments.
Right around sunrise, the eyasses fly out from their roosts, and begin the unmistakable food calls that goad Mom and T2 into hunting mode.
Mom has moved down from the pediment and perches on a light pole waiting to pounce on a rat. The rat holes are out to the right. She is a deadly efficient sunrise rat hunter, and soon has her first catch of the day.
After she seizes the rat in her talons, she flies up with it to the fence above the rat holes. The little birds sitting alongside probably feel fairly safe at this moment!
Then she heads over to what we call "the picnic tree" because of its popularity as an eyass gathering and eating spot.
The picnic tree is a large sycamore on the corner of 21st Street and the Ben Franklin Parkway.
Something catastrophic has happened to it as it suddenly is almost completely dead. The leaves that started to come out in the spring never fully appeared, and so it has a lacy, winter-like look in the middle of summer when all the surrounding trees are thickly foliaged.
Sad as it is to see this beautiful tree dying, it does make it easy to see and count the hawks as they perch in its branches. Mom is top left, having dropped the rat off to the eyass on the bottom right. It is mantling over its prey to stop the other two above from even thinking about stealing it.
The eyasses spend a lot of time in this tree preening as well as eating.
T2 is really getting into his role as step-dad and provider for his new family.
He spends a lot of time sitting on poles and spotlights...
... scanning the ground below for rodents...
... and heading out in pursuit.
These spotlights illuminate the gorgeous architecture of the Parkway buildings, but also provide excellent hunting spots for the haggards.
There are many flag poles in this part of the city, and these too are used for hunting perches.
In addition to providing food for the eyasses, the haggards have to feed themselves. Here, T2 has caught a young vulnerable bird - probably a recent fledgling.
He plucks it, spitting out feathers into the breeze...
... then gruesomely tears it apart.
When he has finished eating, he wipes off his beak
The falconry term for this is "feaking."
When everyone has eaten, the haggards tend to disappear, probably to perch and preen in some quiet spot, away from "the kids," who, like all youngsters, get energized as the day unfolds, playing around on the building du jour - usually the Franklin Institute.
They love finding new places to perch on the ornate carvings.
Wherever they go, a haggard is always watching from a distance. Here, though they are hard to see, are two eyasses on the roof above the nest, and the nesthugger is back on the nest. T2 is on the lamp pole to the right.
The eyasses are starting to make serious attempts at hunting, though we have not yet seen any captures. Some little finches on the roof of the Barnes Museum caught this eyass's attention...
... and it made several runs at them.
The finches did not seem particularly perturbed by this huge hawk coming after them, and kept settling back on the roof, just tantalizingly out of reach.
When things get slow, there's always the bathing ledge for entertainment...
... and with recent Philadelphia temperatures in the 90s, a quick dunk and fluff must feel great!
The eyasses are learning about mockingbirds, how much they hate hawks, and how they love to torment them.
The eyass cannot figure out what is happening...
... or what to do about it, as the mockingbird gets increasingly brazen.
Yelling doesn't help...
... so time to get outta there.
As confident as the eyasses have become in their flying, there are still times when they misjudge a situation.
These next few weeks, as the eyasses become more adventurous, will provide some great opportunities to observe them improving their hunting skills. No doubt, they will lead to us to a new part of the city. Last year, the ball field at 26th Street was Hawk Central. In 2010, it was the Rodin Museum garden. I wonder where they will take us this year?
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