Monday, May 28, 2012

Come in off the ledge!

At 11:30 AM on Friday, the first eyass left the nest for the ledge - a small step down, but a huge one for a young eyass.

      Shannon O'Donnell


The two remaining eyasses at first were amazed at what their sibling had just done....

       Tess Cook


... but soon seemed completely unconcerned by their sibling's adventurous exploits.



At around 12:50 PM, the explorer jumped back up into the nest, and all three were reunited.



Every day brings new developments at the nest, so I'll try to bring everyone up to date with what's been happening.

The growth rate of the eyasses is astounding.  Here they are on May 16 inspecting a white rat meal... lots of fluff on the eyasses and hardly any feathers to be seen.



By May 22, many feathers had emerged on their wings and backs, and the fluff was now mostly on their heads.



Gravely inspecting a rat drop, wondering how to unzip it...

          Ari Rosenthal


And yesterday, May 27, looking really grown up with feathers coming through on their heads, and hardly any white fluff left.



The characteristic peach coloring on their chests is also starting to show.

          Ari Rosenthal


          Ari Rosenthal



They are curious and observant of everything that goes on around them...

          Kay Meng


 ... and especially when something interesting happens in the Board Room...

          Kay Meng


... such as Kay changing her camera lens

          Kay Meng


... which seemed to mightily amuse this eyass!  Mom, meanwhile, could care less.

          Kay Meng


The food drops have been cut back to one rat per day put out in the early evening.  T2 is really getting a grip on hunting for the eyasses.  Here he is bringing in a rat...

          Ari Rosenthal


... and heading back out to the hunting fields.

          Kay Meng

He is not bringing as much "big stuff" (rabbits and pigeons) as Dad used to do, so by dropping a rat in the evening it ensures the eyasses get a good feeding at least once a day.


T2 continues to fly in whenever he sees a rat on the ledge

          Kay Meng


After he picks it up, he literally seems to weigh his options...

          Kay Meng


... goes to Plan B...

          Kay Meng


 ... and heads out with the rat to get it ready for feeding.

          Kay Meng


Mom always seems more intimidating when she heads in to check out the rat.

          Kay Meng


She is less tolerant of potential rat thieves...

          Kay Meng


... than T2 who is curious rather than aggressive.

          Kay Meng


Now that the eyasses are more independent, the haggards spend less time on the nest, but they are usually very close by, keeping their hawk-eyes on the nest.  They spend a lot of time on the beautifully carved ledges above the nest.  The haggard is right at the top of this image in the middle.

                              Ari Rosenthal


Mom gazes down at the nest from her corner perch....

          Ari Rosenthal


.... and T2 watches from farther along the ledge.

                   Ari Rosenthal


This particular ledge is known as the bathing ledge because it has a steep slope back to the wall which collects rainwater.  The haggards love to bathe there, and often appear happily disheveled after a bath.

          Scott Kemper


          Kay Meng


Mom can almost always be found at the top of her favorite tree immediately across from the nest.  She is much lighter in weight than she appears, able to alight easily on the topmost twigs.

                         Ari Rosenthal


The haggards also hang out in the trees over by the Barnes Museum...

          Kay Meng


... on the satellite dish on the nearby Park Towne Place apartment building (one of the highest spots around),

       Jack Walters


 ... and sometimes they just soar together in the skies above the Franklin Institute.

          Kay Meng

Perhaps some of this "together time" is to catch up on what didn't happen for these two -- the pair-bonding activities that usually occur in the fall and winter along with nest construction and then egg laying. 

Just before the four week anniversary of losing Dad, this touching memorial appeared on the fence right below the nest.  (I apologize for the lack of attribution for this image - having downloaded it, the original no longer seems to be on the Hawkaholic Facebook page.) 



We have no idea who wove the roses onto the fence, and they were gone a couple of days later, but what a lovely way to honor the magnificent hawk we now call T1, as we celebrate the miracle of T2 who arrived just in time to keep this hawk family viable.

          Kay Meng


T2 has become an expert eyass feeder...

          Kay Meng

          Scott Kemper


 ... knowing exactly the right size to tear each tasty morsel.

          Scott Kemper


Despite his best efforts, however, greed sometimes prevails!  The eyass at the back is attempting (successfully, it turned out!) to swallow whole the entire hind limb of the rat.

          Scott Kemper


Mom is often on clean-up duty, removing the almost empty rat skins to keep the nest clean.

          Scott Kemper


In addition to heading out onto the ledge, the eyasses are strengthening their wings and legs with vigorous flapping or "wingercizing!"  Last week, they could not fully stand up on their long legs...

          Kay Meng


           Kay Meng


... but this week they are standing tall and pushing off a bit more.  They will soon be "catching air" when they combine flapping with jumps and bouncing.

         Ari Rosenthal

Because they have spent so much time sitting down, the feather down has been rubbed away from the backs of their legs.

          Scott Kemper


At this point, all the wingercizing is done facing the window with their backs to the world.  A clear sign of imminent fledging is when the eyasses flap-jump facing forward, when all it will take to fledge is a forward launch.

It will be about a couple of weeks more until fledging, so let's enjoy the remaining time they are on the nest.   Here are some wonderful images from Kay Meng and Scott Kemper of T2 who has become such an integral and important member of the Franklin Institute hawk family.

          Kay Meng

          Scott Kemper


          Scott Kemper

          Kay Meng


          Scott Kemper


Here is a close-up of T2's scimitar-like talons, steel-sharp and deadly.

          Scott Kemper


          Kay Meng

          Kay Meng


And from the sublime.... to the greedy.  Yesterday evening, there was a five-hawk feeding frenzy on the nest (how can five hawks fit?) as they ripped apart a rat, a mouse and a bird.

        Pamela Dimeler


 The family that picnics together, stays together.

               Marge Goodman

           Marge Goodman





And it surely does look that this family will be together for a while...


   Pamela Dimerler