James last saw the falcon chicks tucked in on their ledge last night. Lorraine arrived early this morning to find one of the chicks on the roof!

She watched the chick make its way over the roof towards Rowena, who was perched on the security camera on the southwest corner. When the chick got there, Rowena took off! The chick tried to climb up the camera arm, but eventually gave up.

The chick may well have landed on the roof on on its first flight, by launching off the ledge, looping back and getting enough lift. Or, it may have gotten there in stages. Either way, it’s an admirable performance.

I’ll have to check previous years’ reports to be sure, but I think this is the first chick to make it to the roof pretty much right away. This is almost certainly a female, which not only explains the delay in flying (at 42 days, rather than the 39 days expected for a male) but makes her ability to reach the roof this quickly all the more impressive.

Female Peregrine Falcons, like all birds of prey, are significantly larger than the males (an average 910–960 g vs. 500–570 g). That means there’s a lot more bird to launch into the air and to keep aloft on the first try.

This chick has also maintained the tradition of Data Centre chicks (about half of them) flying at the first crack of dawn.