I had the privilege of spending an hour or so with a family of Peregrine Falcons earlier this month. The three young falcons have fledged and are now spending their days practicing their flight skills under the watchful eye of both adults, that is when there not begging for food from atop one of the many storied buildings spread out around the city.
The youngster on the left above was the last to leave. He can be picked out as you scroll through the photos below by the amount of down feathers he had yet to molt and yes that is him below.
and again here....
and here practicing for the big day.
The older birds, by a few days, appeared more confident along the edge of the building.
While this guy seemed a bit skittish about approaching the edge...
it's siblings were more than ready to go..
and appeared ready to leave at any moment.
Almost daring a gust of wind to come along and push him off...
He appears to be saying, that's it I'm out of here... but today was not the day.
There was more preening to be done before heading out into the world.
Though I thought he would leap from the ledge at this point.
One of the adults had dropped off a tidbit which this youngster pounced on several times.
Here's the adults just prior to delivering a pigeon to the youngsters. The female is on the left.
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