where are the watchers this year???
Unfortunately, a few of us regular fledge watchers are away on holidays right now, bev. Here's hoping our 2 fledglings are okay. 
These chicks are two weeks late fledging so we are usually done fledge watching long before now so it was inevitable that we would run into holiday times. And besides fledge watching is really that, watching the chicks as they fledge. In terms of "protecting" the birds, more than 1/2 the time we get calls from non-fledgewatchers - the public, bldg managers, rehabbers, vets, the police, etc), 1/3 of the time we get a report of a dead bird and the rest of the time fledgewatchers are close enough to provide very timely and usually live-saving assistance. So when we have fledgewatchers it's a wonderful bonus but often, even with fledgewatchers, it's up to the chick and luck.
I should report that in talking with others south, east and west of us, this has been a late year for pretty much everyone - the North Dakota birds are 4 weeks off their usual schedule if I remember correctly. So we are most certainly not alone!!
