Diary - 2010

This will be the eleventh year I've been jotting down notes to share with you. Over the years many of you have written to share your own observations or to let me know that you are reading again. Several people have written each and every year from the beginning - wow - you have to have an amazing dedication to stay with what is certainly often repetitive. But that is the good stuff, isn't it? Each year repetition becomes more of what is reported because things are going more naturally, requiring virtually no human assistance. So it is good.

I was reading back over the previous years and remembering with great affection the original team from the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group. Talk about dedication. Those people did amazing work and taught all of us so much. So many of you were at the Rock each time a climb was made to get eggs to take back to the lab for hatching, for bringing chicks back to be raised by their parents, and for rescuing birds in trouble. Some of my favorite times involved the delivery of foster chicks to be raised in the wild when our adults experienced failed nests. Check out the first diary year, 1999. It was an exciting year but, also, a sad one for me. The female falcon died shortly after those youngsters fledged. I had been watching her for several years - she was the first Peregrine I fell in love with.

Over the years the "regulars" at the Rock have come and gone too. What a fascinating, eclectic, and generous group they have - for the most part - been. I have had the good fortune to make some wonderful friends there whose love of the Peregrines was a joy.

If you get to feeling nostalgic (as I obviously have been), you might enjoy reading back through previous years. (1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)

	These photos were taken by Cleve. They are of the 2009 juveniles practicing their flying skills. Click on any image to see the larger one on Cleve's site.

But, enough of that. Here we go for another year. My schedule has changed, so I won't be able to watch as often as in previous years, but I'll keep you up-to-date with highlights and the photographs of Cleve and others.

March 11, Thursday

It is that time of year again. Our four Peregrines are in place - from what I have been able to tell, it looks to be the same four as last year. As of this writing, March 11, Khaos and Elvis have chosen the diving board hole again. Milli and Esteban are - well, I don't know what they are doing.

March 16, Tuesday

I watched on the north / east side of the Rock for a couple of hours early this morning and didn't determine anything about where Milli and Esteban are nesting. Cleve, however, did manage to locate them after I left. The best place to stand to find this location is on the bay side of the Rock near where the road curves to head back to town. As Cleve says in his description, this is the same location they used in 2004. It's quite high up, under a domed boulder.

The gate to the south side of the Rock remains closed for no apparent reason. We can pretty safely assume that nesting continues there in the diving board hole. Khaos and Elvis are a few days ahead of the north side pair.

April 17, Saturday Cleve caught this image of the North/east side female with what looks like a bit of food being taken into the aerie. Both pair seem to be feeding young.

May 1 - Here they are - two of three chicks we've seen in the south side eyrie. They have been showing themselves since yesterday morning. There may be more, but even if we only end up with juse three at the Rock, it's a great year! Come out and see the kids. This is when the real fun begins. More photos to come.

Gotta love a young falcon. Look at this face on the right! This Peregrine is trying out his wings in preparation for that big leap. Branching began today on the south side, with Cleve watching one youngster wander about twenty yards from the eyrie. This will be a fun week to watch the quick progression and first flights coming up. On an unfortunate note, there only seems to be the two youngsters left. Three were visible just a week ago, but we aren't seeing that third one any more. Below is the first photograph of a north-side chick - obviously over a week younger - and Mom's backside. I certainly didn't call this one correctly, thinking I had seen one last week.

Click here for images of one of this year's fledglings, taken on May 11

Cleve caught this video of the north side chicks. Watch closely. How many can you count? Watch again. Then, check out the pictures below. What beautiful babies we have!

May 18 - In the images below Cleve caught the south side fledglings flying low - sometimes skimming just above the pavement of the parking lot - and shares these photos with us.

May 21 - Cleve found these four chicks at the north side entrance this morning. He was kind enough to circle two of them for my feeble eyes. You can certainly see the difference in age -- the ones above this picture (taken three days ago. Below are the same chicks, taken May 23.

The kind of abuse I have to put up with from Cleve. Sheesh!	Norm Sherr, Cleve Nash, and Norm's son, Greg.