Mary and I have been following the San Jose falcons fairly closely the past couple days. On Thursday we went downtown in hopes of catching sight of the recently fledged boy, 93-P (now named Mercury). He was being harassed by crows most of the day, and kept on the move. We kept missing him. We eventually caught up to him sitting on a second story window ledge above Zanotto’s Market on 2nd Street. I was able to take some pictures using the digiscope setup. You can see them on my gallery. NBC11 used a couple of my pictures on their web slide show called Adventures in San Jose Baby-Bird-Sitting.

We didn’t have a chance to go downtown on Friday, but we did follow the action via the webcam and discussion group. It turns out Mercury ended up in an unsafe location and was again escorted to the roof of City Hall. He stayed there most of the day, and eventually managed to fly down to the nest area where he spent the night with his sisters Cielo and Meyye. There’s an article about the falcon naming on NBC11 and the San Jose Mercury News ran the following tagline on their Saturday morning paper:

Today, we spent most of the day downtown, dragging my nephew Nick to hang out with all the crazy falcon fans. Apparently we missed some really cool food exchanges, but we did see all of the young falcons from the 4th Street garage. We even saw Mercury make a short flight from the nest box to the window louver where Clara was perched. We had a good time watching the birds and chatting with the other falconatics.

The first of the falcons fledged today. It was the boy (93-P), much like last year. Although I don’t think he was pushed like Hiko was. Last I had heard he was sitting in a pine tree near SJSU. Mary and I headed down town to have a look. By the time we got down there and found the tree in question, the falcon fledgling was gone. We did not know where it went, so we went up to the top of the 4th Street garage where many falcon watchers hang out. It turns out the falcon had seen food being delivered to his siblings, so he took off toward City Hall. He was not able to gain enough altitude and ended up running into the side of the building. He went to the ground and ended up in the street, where one of the local falcon watchers captured it for it’s own protection. The falcon was taken into City Hall and checked out by Glenn of the SCPBRG. They determined the falcon is fine and will release it on the roof of City Hall tomorrow. Hopefully it will fare better next time.

The eagles at Calaveras Reservoir seem to have abandoned their nest. It’s hard to tell if they had any eggs or what happened, but they don’t seem to be hanging around the nest these days. I only have the photos I took on April 27.

As for the eagles from the Channel Islands Live nest cam, it appears fledging will likely be postponed. The two eagle chicks were attacked in the nest by an immature bald eagle while the parents were out hunting. Over the course of nearly 2 hours, both eagles were knocked from the nest by the immature intruder. Fortunately a team from the Institute for Wildlife Studies was on the island at the time and were able to hike over and rescue the birds. The birds were flown to a veterinarian in Orange County (see picture on left). One had a damaged beak and the other a broken wing. The eagle with the broken wing had to be operated on, but the prognosis looks good. Unfortunately, the eagles will not be returned to the nest, but will eventually fledge from a hack site on Santa Cruz Island. The picture below left shows the x-ray of the broken wing after the operation. The picture on the right shows the damaged beak.

Today was banding day for the peregrine falcon chicks at San Jose City Hall. It official, there are 2 girls and 1 boy. The event started around 8am when Brian of the SCPBRG repelled down to the ledge containing the nest box. He then proceeded to band each of the chicks while Clara, the mother, kept swooping in hoping to scare the intruder away. I managed to watch the entire event on the web cam, and I believe additional video footage from Brian’s helmet cam will be posted eventually. The picture on the left was taken by Nick Dunlop from the roof of City Hall. There are (currently) additional photos on the Mayor’s webpage.

On Sunday while in the kitchen, I heard a persistent chirping noise in the back yard. I looked outside a few times, but didn’t see anything. Eventually, I noticed a little black phoebe fledgling sitting on the grill calling to be fed. I managed to get a few shots through the sliding glass door, but it was partially obscured by the grill. While I was shooting, I noticed it open its mouth real wide and was make extra noise. I got a shot of the open mouth (see picture on right), but missed what happened next. One of the parents swooped in, jammed some food in the mouth and flew off again. It happened so fast. I saw the feeding a couple more times, but never did manage to get a photo. Eventually the phoebe flew to the back fence and kept calling. After another food exchange, the fledgling followed the parent out of view. I have seen the fledgling a couple tims since then. It seems to be doing well.

In the mean time, the San Jose City Hall peregrines are growing rapidly. They are starting to hop around a bit, and one has even ventured outside the nest box. I believe they will be banded for identification purposes on Friday. Maybe I’ll go downtown to watch. You can’t really see the banding from the ground, but you can see the parents swooping and calling to scare away the intruder. It should be interesting.

It looks like I’ll be moving on to the next phase of my professional career. I’m not sure what that will be, but it will most likely not involve Aptility. Nate and I had some discussions earlier this week and came to the mutual conclusion that we should go our separate ways. Nate will continue on with Aptility, and I wish him the best of luck.

For now I’ll be spending my time figuring out what I want to do next. That means I’ll probably be spending more time at Panera Bread and various cafes with friends like Ron and Khoa. I’d still like to do something in the clean tech space, but mobile applications are also a distinct possibility. Time will tell, or as my sister Sue keeps reminding me, “one day at a time.”