On the Fourth of July this year a young Osprey died. A week later a young Peregrine Falcon died. The two incidents took place just a few miles from each other. Both birds were less than two months old, and had taken their first flights under watchful eyes of humans. Local Audubon Society had two cameras on the osprey nest, and volunteers were posted by the tower where the peregrine was hatched. I had a brief encounter with Lux (the juvenile falcon that died later) on the evening of July 5, the day before she took her first leap into the air. She was on Campanile, the clock tower at the center of UC Berkeley campus. The tower rose 307 feet against the blue sky, showed its usual serene façade, and revealed nothing about a raptor's nest until the insistent high-pitched scratchy calls near the top broke through the summer lull. Even with one ear plugged up due to a cold, I could hear her loud and clear. In all three photos above, the female adult Peregrine Falcon stands at ...