It seems like just yesterday that we watched Bell feeding four tiny eyases. They could barely hold up their heads and reach for food, their eyes weren’t fully open, and their mobility was limited to toppling over. As always, it was difficult to believe that they would fly in six weeks. Their parents provided food, warmth and attention, and they. responded with rapid growth that was evident even one week after hatch. The process from fuzzy hatchling to full body size with perfect new feathers was compressed into so short a time span that the changes were visible from day to day. Before we knew it, they were almost ready to see if their wings would carry them away. To watch a youngster on the ledge edge, flapping and focused on the world beyond, was almost to be able to feel the intensity of the forces in that young bird. Go! Go! No - not yet! One after another, they left the ledge when they were ready.
The WaMu foursome fledged between 6/16 and 6/20, and the four Ship Canal young flew in approximately the same time frame. The three Grain Terminal youngsters fledged the first week in July. These birds once again survived the July 4th fireworks display in their front yard with no apparent harm.
Now, in early August, the juveniles are in various stages of attaining independence. Though there’s the usual individual variation, the majority of young peregrines are believed to make their first kills after about four weeks on the wing,. But, there’s a big difference between nabbing an occasional meal and self-sufficiency. Independence is a gradual process. The young birds are less and less likely to try to get food from the adults; the adults are less and less inclined to feed them. The young of resident (non-migratory) pairs usually stay near their natal area and associate with their parents longer than the young of migratory pairs.
Though sightings have dropped dramatically, we expect to get occasional glimpses of the juveniles at these sites through August. The most recent sighting of the WaMu juveniles was the morning of August 9, when two slowly circled and drifted in the warm rising air between One Union Square and Park Place. It won’t be as easy for them to expand their activities into the rest of the city as it was in the past, because of the increase in the number of peregrines in the Greater Seattle area. There were six eyries this year, though only four produced young. So each young bird must avoid or confront territorial pairs, floaters (non-breeders without territories) and juveniles from other nests as it explores areas beyond its home territory.
Stay tuned for further updates.
