Today we banded this year's new Peregrine falcons. Always a fun day here at Kodak! To learn more about this tradition in our 11th year(!) see this post from last year, Kodak Falcons - Greatest Hits.



The tools to band, or identify, the falcons are carefully laid out by New York State Department of Environment and Conservation personnel.



First we have to get the new falcons. There are five this year and you can follow their exploits at our partner site run by the local chapter of the Audubon society at: rfalconcam.com. As you can imagine Mom and Dad (Mariah and Kaver) are none to pleased at this prospect. Brooms are used to prevent a clear shot at the folks doing the extraction. Low-tech we admit, but hey it works!.



Thanks to Mike Champlin for showing grace under pressure in capturing Mariah on video! Here is another video if you liked that one: Mariah Incoming Part II



Kenn "FalKenn" Martinez is on hand to broadcast the event live to the worldwide audience of falcon faithful fans. Given his expression it was sketchy up until "go" time! ;-) The DEC's Mike Allen and Barbara Loucks did the careful work of checking this year's clutch (the word for a batch of new falcons) for health issues. After a clean bill of health bands were applied. Thirty lucky students were on hand to watch the action up close and personal. Cameras were everywhere of course!



Next! One person on the team holds the precious bundle while another performs the required duties. Incidentally, it is quite loud! Give a listen in this video...





Jim Pisello blogged and posted pictures live from the event on the Rochester Falconcam site. FalKenn is still trying to get things together it appears and Kodak's Julie Kaiser is enjoying the action.



This year was special for me because I got to hold an eyas (young falcon) while it was being banded. Those sharp talons made the job of paying attention to my duties quite easy ;-)



As I mentioned thirty students came to watch the action. They follow the falcons in their classroom and were invited to attend. They also got to name a falcon. It was an extremely large female that they named Quest after their school name. This years group included 3 females, Seneca, Quest, and Susan B. (the one I held!) and 2 males, Diamante and Zephyr.

It it the season of band concerts, school plays, award nights, graduations, and many other activities that keep families like mine super busy. In the spirit of that season I thought I would share an idea that seems to have now become a family tradition.

When our oldest, Adam, was a Junior in high school he received his first brochure in the mail from a college trying to woo him their way. I told him that we should keep these pieces of mail and that he would be surprised at the amount he would get by the time he was ready to make a choice. We got a box and started putting those college siren songs into it. When it came time for his high school graduation we strayed from the traditional (stodgy ;-) announcement path and decided to make our own using photos (of course!) and that pile of mail as the backdrop.



Adam's brother, Kyle, is four years younger and we took the same approach. A tradition was born!
From there I used a photo editing program to make a postcard sized high school graduation announcement.

Voila, here are the finished products, click each to enlarge...



I used Kodak Photo Paper and an our AiO printer to print them and they came out great if I don't say so myself! The paper has to be at least 7 mil to meet the postal specs. They were 5-1/2 inches wide by 4-1/4  inches tall. This way I could print them 4 on a sheet.



With two more kids (Taylor and Reed) following Adam and Kyle it seems that the tradition will continue. That's okay because I happen to know that Kodak will keep making great photo paper and ink! ;-)

This just in...Here it is four years since we made Adam's announcement and we had to kick into college graduation gear.