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The brood of three young Red-tailed Hawks is running about 12 days behind last year’s fledge date and over two weeks behind the 2012 brood, but I finally got to witness one of the first flights this morning.

Two of the three nestlings have been extensively exploring the building right around the nest for the past several days, climbing the fire escape to the roof and then perching on objects there.

This morning, though, I found one of them atop the chimney of the Picknelly Adult & Family Education Center, which is across the alley from the nest site. After about 25 minutes, the little hawk crouched down and then burst from the chimney, flying back across the alley to the nest.

I’ve been worried about the amount of vehicle traffic on the streets below the nest, so I’m hoping the hawks will spend most of their early days of flight making short trips around the rooftops right around the alley. In Springfield, the fledgling Peregrine Falcons were repeatedly picked up by animal control this week after they made there way to the sidewalks and roofs of parked cars. Each time, the young birds were checked out for injuries and then returned to Monarch Place to continue their learning process.