At this stage of development, the Gulf Tower peregrines are learning to fly and the Pitt peregrines are walking off the nest.  Are they in trouble when you can’t see them?  No, they’re fine.  Here’s where they go.

Gulf Tower:

Yesterday, May 31, Lori Maggio stopped by the Fledge Watch site and found all five peregrines at home on the Gulf Tower.

In the photo at top, the two parents are circled on the left, three youngsters circled at various levels on the right.

The closeup points out the three juveniles.  The one at the top fledged to the observation deck level on Tuesday and is flapping in preparation for her next flight.  She flew toward the USX Tower where Lori lost sight of her.

Last evening two chicks came back to the nest to spend the night but left today at dawn and might never return.  This morning Lori reports that all three had fledged by 7:30am.  Woo hoo!

Why don’t peregrines come back to the nest forever?  The nest is the babies’ crib.  When youngsters graduate to a bigger life, they don’t want to come back to the crib.   Human children are like that, too.

Cathedral of Learning:

One week younger than the Gulf Tower chicks, the youngsters at the Cathedral of Learning are just starting to ledge walk and disappear from camera view.  Are they safe?  Yes.

Yesterday afternoon one of them explored below the nest while the others watched (shown above).  There’s a lot of floor space below the nest with walls all around so there’s no way a young bird can fall.  As happens every year, the youngster gets bored and walks/jumps back up to the nest surface.  Of course she does. That’s where the food is!

In the days ahead the youngsters will also walk up to the nest rail and jump over to the keyhole.  Here’s a description of where they go, complete with ledge walking photos.

Chicks: What is Ledge Walking?

To fulfill their destiny these birds have to fly.  And to fly they have to leave the camera’s view.

It’s a big world out there.  It’s time for them to go.

(photos of the Gulf Tower peregrines by Lori Maggio.  nest photo from the National Aviary falconcam at the Cathedral of Learning)