Thursday, June 12, 2014

Hanging around

For those of you following along, the first of Cornell's current crop of Red Tailed Hawks fledged (accidentally - blown off a precarious perch when lifting a claw to preen while simultaneously opening his wings a bit for balance) last week Friday.

He was blown off, landing in a rather...odd place. The video is here. You can almost see him thinking, "WTF? Wait, I have to look cool, my siblings are watching. Still, what the heck do I do now?". Keep watching until the end - when the camera pulls back, you can see him flap up to safety.

After flapping to the ground, to a bush, to a bench, to the top of a low greenhouse and back around, this hawk (E2) flew back to that pesky window ledge, though one story up. From there, he returned to the nest this afternoon.

Meanwhile, his siblings have been teasing like crazy, standing out on the perch from which E2 was blown, flapping their wings madly. Methinks they realize that once they leave the nests, the food drops from the parents become a little less frequent. It's also been raining a lot in Ithaca - not ideal conditions for a first deliberate flight.

The live cam is here.

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