I went to the roof of the parking garage across the street from the nest box this morning and saw one of the girls up on the ledge of the box.  I have a feeling at least three of them are up there now.  I sure wish the camera would let us see up there too!

Here’s a picture of the one on the ledge from this morning…

This was pretty far away but this was both of the adults chasing a Black-bellied Plover which they did not end up catching!  I have to say that I’m relieved since I really like those plovers… 

This morning one of the adults landed on the ledge of the nest box and was de-feathering a bird.  The kids were all getting a little impatient waiting for some food and one of them actually tried to jump up on the ledge as you can see in the beginning of this video and in this picture:

Here’s a video of the kids being fed a little while ago.  I can’t believe how fast they’re growing!

For any newcomers, or people with bad memories like me…CJ, the adult male, is one of five kids raised at this same nest site in 2006!  One of the kids in this picture is him…

You’ve probably noticed some darker feathers on the chicks.  These are called “pin feathers” or feather follicles.  These follicles contain undeveloped feathers which will eventually emerge from inside the sheaths.  The birds help this process by preening which is one reason you see them preening so much.  You can really see the pin feathers on the one bird who stretches his wings in this video.

They always make me laugh the way they turn their head sideways to watch one of their siblings.

Here’s a video of a feeding from a little while ago.  When you watch it you might feel bad for the one in the back who looks like she’s being left out.  Keep watching and you’ll she’s not having anything to do with not being fed! 

Here are some pictures from yesterday! 

Here are the four kids inside the nest box.  Pretty cute, huh? 

This one shows the female on the ledge of the nest box…

Here you can see the female screaming at us and the male flying by in the background…

A closeup of the female…

The egg that didn’t hatch…

This is Craig getting ready to band the one inside the nest box.  You can see how there is an opening at the back for access to the inside of the box.

This is the sign that he held up inside the box before he did the banding. 

Unfortunately the kids seem to be hiding in that top corner today.  A couple have come into view but not for very long!  Pretty soon they’ll be too big to hide up there though!

All went well at banding today!  We have four healthy females!

If you were tuned in to the webcam shortly after 1:00 this afternoon, you got to see one of the chicks being banded!  Sorry but I had no idea that Craig would be doing this or I would have posted something to let people know.

Here are some links to some short videos from today.  I’m sorry to say that I forgot to record one of them being banded. 

Here’s one of all the kids when we first opened the back of the nest box. 

This sort of shows one being banded while she’s biting on Craig’s shirt button.

Red Girl lands on the ledge and you see CJ fly by in the background.

One of the kids waiting to be banded.

All of the kids lined up after being banded.

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 10th between 12-2:00 PM, Craig Koppie, USFSW Eagle Coordinator/Raptor Biologist, will be banding the falcon chicks.  He will probably remove two or three chicks at first, leaving one so that the adults don’t get quite as upset.  As soon as they’ve been weighed, sexed and banded, they will be returned to the nest box and the remaining chick(s) will be removed.  Although you’d never know it by all the noise they make, this does not harm them!  Please see this post from last year for information about banding.

The kids are getting much more aggressive as you can see in this video of them being fed this morning!

All seems to be going well with the kids!  Here’s a video of them being fed this morning.  I wasn’t sure if the one kid was going to be able to swallow whatever he had but he eventually got it down!