Internet helps with bird watching

A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a couple who live on a ledge outside a window in the Cleveland Terminal Tower. No, of course they aren't a human couple. In fact, they are a couple of birds. Not your common ordinary birds, this is a pair of falcons. They are named SW and Buckeye.

When I was introduced to them, SW had just laid her eggs in their nest on the window ledge very close to the top of the tower. I became interested right away and started to watch the eggs to see when they would become babies. And this year is no different.

I was alerted by my friend again this spring that the pair had produced some eggs and SW was beginning to bring to fruition the results of those eggs. First there was one eyas (the name for raptor young) then suddenly there were four! SW hatched those babies in record time this year. And now the waiting begins.

While SW was keeping the eggs warm in the nest, Buckeye's chore was to keep her well fed. And now that there are four little ones, both Buckeye and SW will be kept busy feeding the newly hatched. The eyases at a young age will be clamoring for food from them. Mr. Wright, volunteer nest monitor, says the chicks will spend a great deal of time huddled together for warmth. You will want to see each kid with two eyes and a beak, you will also want to see the begging response anytime a parent is near. The parents will cover (mantle) the young for four to seven days. The young are not able to control body temperature.

The eyases will grow and change very fast for the next six weeks. Check out a picture about chick growth at The Canadian Peregrine Foundation: http://www.peregrine-foundation.ca/info/ageguide.html

As time goes on, those babies will start to try out their wings with just little flits around the edge. Sometimes it is fatal for one of them, since that one evidently wasn't quite strong enough to fly. And after you have watched them from the day they were hatched, it's heart wrenching to see one that doesn't make that initial tryout of its wings.

This year I am being a little anxious as we watch the chicks grow, wondering if they will all make their initial flight in safety. As thrilling as it is to watch the chicks mature and fly, it is common that they will each decide where they will make their new home. Like all good children, when they reach maturity they strike out on their very own.

But first, as they grow a little more, they will be banded and named. They latest news is that the females are named Spirit, Tiki and Tiger. The one male is named Thriller. Names for the new chicks were suggested by students from area schools.

Live information about these falcons is posted on http://www.falconcam-cmnh.org/news.php. And for more on Falcons, go to http://raptorsinthecity.org/ The Cleveland Museum of Natural History sponsors the FalconCams and photos are courtesy of Scott Wright, volunteer peregrine nest monitor. (Permission must be gained to publish his photos.)

If you are interested in falcons, please log on to the Cleveland site. It is amazing to see both SW and Buckeye fly back and forth bringing food to the baby chicks. And it is even more amazing to me that SW and Buckeye continue to return to their home at the Terminal Tower year after year, after their babies grow to maturity and leave the nest.

I always feel a little sad when the young chicks have left their parents' home. I wonder if SW and Buckeye feel the empty nest syndrome like we humans after their babies have flown off to more exciting things. I guess we humans could learn a little bit about "letting go" by watching this brave couple. By the time this column is published it is conceivable that the chicks will have already flown again. If so, there is always next spring to look for action at that site once again.

To learn more about falcons please check the websites I mentioned earlier. Happy falcon watching.