Steve and Cindy Sommerfeld have been coming back year after year to watch the families of falcons grow downtown. The bird-watching couple spends their after-work hours monitoring the family, logging hours comparable to Walters'. Steve Sommerfeld, a plumber, said aside from helping them stay safe, he loves to watch them in the air.

"The payoff is watching them be successful," said Cindy Sommerfeld. "The payoff is when you realize they are totally independent and will make it in the wild." Putting in the time has allowed Steve Sommerfeld to be part of the action.

"I've got to pick up birds the last two years. I've got some scars to prove it," he said.

When caught, the birds are checked by a rehabilitator and, if OK, Walters will place them near the nest, but not in it. Walters said he hopes the young falcons will make their way west of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building because the buildings there — the Salt Lake Temple in particular — have friendlier surfaces. Walters said the parents use food to lure the young falcons out of the nest and into the air by flying by with prey in their talons or by perching with food near the nest and pulling away when the young falcons approach. Eventually the birds get hungry enough to leave the nest and fly, Walters said.

The parents also deprive the young falcons (Walters called them "butterballs") of food to reduce their weight.

"Simply put, it amounts to starving them down to flying weight," he said. "The message (from the parents) has to be — 'for crying out loud, if you want to eat, put it in the air.'"

Walters said learning to fly is a process for the young falcons, not an act. The first flights are exhausting for the young birds, and they must hone their wings and flying skills.

But once they are up, the long hours of waiting seem to be worth it.

"There's nothing like watching a peregrine fly," Steve Sommerfeld said.

---

E-mail: bcaballero@desnews.com