Friday, February 01, 2008

PART 2 of the Fix


All Photographs: D. Browne
Where we left off-- The swing stage had gone down to pick up the engineer.

10:52AM Pale Male to the nest. He finishes his midpoint investigation. He then flies off the nest

11:04AM The engineer arrives at the nest.

11:04:44AM


11:07AM They check the left side of the twigs for spikes.


11:09AM The worker on the right gets a call on the walkie talkie from Jeff Kollbrunner who is directing the clipping of the spikes from his view standing on the Fisher Terrace.


11:12:33AM All spikes and rough spots are cleared from the untwigged portions of the carriage on the left side.


11:12AM

11:13AM More instructions by walkie talkie.


11:18AM Spikes removed from left twigged section?


11:20AM The second worker receives instructions.


11:21:20AM Spikes removed from right twigged section of nest.


11:21:52AM More spikes from same.


11:26:18AM Right end of untwigged section of carriage is cleared of spikes.


11:29AM The engineer checks the left nest and bowl for spikes.


11:31AM Note the spikes in the hand of the middle worker. More clearing of right bare section of carriage.


11:37AM More directions by walkie talkie.


11:39AM Back now to check the left side again.


11:40AM The swing stage starts to descend slowly. A view of the nest after clipping.


12:10AM Pale Male sits on the railing of the Stovepipe building watching the swing stage.


12:34PM Pale Male flies over to Linda, tucks his foot up and checks out Lola and the nest.


12:36PM Lola on a high point of the Woody Building.


12:37PM Lola can see the swing stage and what is happening on the roof of 927, while Pale Male keeps tabs from the other side, perched on the window railing of Linda.
Then Pale Male and Lola take to the sky and begin to circle north, intertwining their flights, and curving higher and higher out of sight.

Keep your fingers crossed.
Donegal Browne

(To access the most recent posts, click on Palemaleirregulars at the top of the page.)


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So all the spikes up there were removed? What about their function holding the twigs in place?

Am I remembering correctly that the problem with the underneath structure situation was the spikes extended too high vs the original setup which had spikes but shorter ones?

Donegal Browne said...

Hi Karen Anne,

I can't say categorically if all the spikes were removed or not. I wasn't onsite the day of the fix so all I have to go on are my observations and photographs from the Hawk Bench.

I'll let you know if that was the case or not, when I'm told on good authority.

Correct, it was decided, as far as I know, that the spikes poking up through the lining of the bowl were the most likely culprits for the breeding failures.

As to the spikes being the original ones, that is what I was told.

Anonymous said...

I am so happy this was finally taken care of! Now Pale Male and Lola can begin to get down to business and have some wonderful babies this year! Sure hope that happens! Those spikes were just evil!

Thank you for this site and the information you have on here.

I will be watching from here in Elkhart, IN