Zander hovers ten feet over the long perch strides. They engaged in chases, sparring matches, and some extremely high flying. At one point, at least two of them flew so high that they were difficult to pick out against the clouds. The most consequential event that took place today was a successful mid-air food transfer from Ares to Luna. This is a trademark Peregrine stunt that involves the fledgling inverting and briefly flying upside-down, directly beneath its parent. While inverted, Luna reached out with his talons and took prey from Ares. With his prize, Luna flew over to the roof of the bank, where he proceeded to dig into it. Once Max finally finished convalescing on the State Building, one of the first things he did was to perch on the top of the 160-foot church steeple. He was soon joined there by his brothers. June 27: Today there were more intermittent thunderstorms, but our falcon family took it in stride. The juveniles took part in much chasing and sparring. One chase was truly epic and showed just how much stamina these youngsters have. At one point Astrid used part of a pigeon carcass to get her brood to pursue her. Once they started, she bowed out and let the kids chased after each other. At least two pigeons were brought in as prey today, including one that Astrid procured by performing a high-speed dive called a “stoop.” Although the stoop method of hunting is largely responsible for the species’ fame (this is when they can reach speeds surpassing 200 mph), it’s not the method we typically see these Peregrines use. When in the canyon, the falcons most often catch prey by laterally chasing it down. July 2: Early this morning two of the fledglings were on the lower ledge of the hotel. They were trudging through puddles, seeking out scraps of food, and horsing around. However, suddenly they were gone and by 8:30 a.m., we hadn’t seen the juveniles for hours. Perhaps they were out testing their hunting skills. On a hunch, I walked south to Lee Street, where there’s an electrical relay station. This is where I found the juvenile Peregrines. Two of them were on power line poles and two were on 48
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