!!! The best is yet to come! Keep your eyes to the skies!
June 22, 2010 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
CPF Postmaster Reports:
While the “kids” maybe away from the house (or should I say the nest ledge) throughout the day, it may only for a short time depending on the nest site. Now that the juveniles are flighted, they are investigating their new world and they will be honing their new flight skills. While they will be difficult to see them for the most parts throughout the day, they are still very dependant on their parents for food and protection for many weeks to follow.
Remember that the resident adults still have the hardest part of their job still to come. Protection, feeding and training the “teenagers” to hunt and fend for themselves.
For the next 30 to 90 days - (depending on the advancement of each individual fledgling), the juveniles may still be utilizing the nest ledge and still sleeping there at nights, as this is still the only home that they have ever known. Also, remember that this still remains the occupied territory of the resident adults, and these territories (and the nest ledge itself) are still very much under the resident adults control. It is their territory and it will still be protected from all intruders!
Unlike the “non-urban” nesting falcons, most of the urban nesting adult pairs remain on territory all year long and continue to defend the nest ledge and territory throughout the entire year, even during non nesting times.
A far as the juveniles are concerned, their adult parents still have to teach them all of the life skills that the they will have to learn to survive to adulthood, (or should I say, just to survive another day)!!
By mid September, thousands of years of hard wired instincts will have the young juveniles head south on a migration and with upwards of an 80% mortality and many perils and risks ahead of them, the youngsters will need all of the help that they can just to survive their first year. The adult parents have their job cut out for them trying to teach the juveniles how, what and where to hunt food, and how to recognize and escape from all of the “bad guys” out there.
Stay tuned, and keep your eyes to the skies over the next few weeks in and around the nest sites as the best viewing is yet to come!