By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Wow!  What a day.  As long as I’ve been a Rochester Falcon Watcher, I never tire of the excitement and anxiety of a fledge or first flight of one of the beautiful creatures.  One day these young Peregrines will have the potential to be the fastest creature on this planet.  To watch these first tentative flights is a gift.

Today I arrived downtown at about 7:20 am.  I joined MAK & Larry O on Aqueduct St, aka “the hole”.  It was sunny and warm, promising to be a very hot and humid day, with a chance of rain.  All three eyases were still at the nest box when I arrived.  I had to move my car, so off I went.  When I came back, both MAK and Larry said they weren’t sure what they saw.  It looked like a falcon flew off of the Times Square Bldg (TSB) nest box area, but they were unsure if it was an adult, or maybe a pigeon that landed on the east end of the Wilder Bldg?  Did we have a fledge?

Larry walked towards Exchange and MAK and I scanned the roof of the Wilder Bldg.  Just as we received a tweet from an on-line camera watcher (not sure who tweeted) that Baron had fledged, we saw a small brown-feathered head pop up at the SE corner of the Wilder Bldg.  It was Baron alright and he was looking around, checking out his new location. Just as Baron came off the TSB, Dot.ca flew up beneath the NE wing of the TSB to keep an eye on Baron’s flight.

We learned later that afternoon from Shaky that Baron had flown off and on Cam 4 and the top of the nest box a couple times before heading towards main cam and veering off to the south, towards the Blue Cross Arena.  He then must have turned back to the north, heading towards the Wilder Bldg and landing on the east end near a tall smoke stack at that end.  When MAK and Larry spotted him, he was just passing in front of the TSB, heading north.  Both MAK and Larry reported that he was not flapping his wings at all, but gliding with wings fully extended.  They did not see him land because it was further in on the roof.  It did not take him long to find the corner of the building so that we could see that he was ok.

Many Rochester Falcon Watchers came out today to cover the whole day.  Watchers today were MAK, Larry O, Kathy O, Dan S, Dana, Lou, Pat, Debbie H, Carrie, Shaky, Brian H, Lisa McK, Jeanne and me Carol P.

After watching Baron run up and down the roof line of the Wilder bldg, back and forth, at 3:40 pm, Baron finally extended his wings and flew south towards the Times Square Bldg.  He flew past the TSB and around to the south side of the building.  Baron then turned back and gained altitude, finally landing on the well wall on the south side of the TSB.  He was directly across from the nest box and his two sisters, Rosetta and Voyager.  All the Watchers gathered were ecstatic to see that his 2nd flight was strong and that he had easily gained altitude and that he landed well.  Both Beauty and Dot.ca were there watching over his first flights.

His 3rd and last flight of today came quickly.  At 4:00 pm, Baron started moving back and forth on the ledge, head bobbing, wings extended and flapping and he vocalized the whole time.  Then he was off!  A nice strong flight over open space to the nest box platform on the northeast side of the building.  Cam Watcher Donna tweeted that the landing wasn’t perfect, but he was safe and he was home.  Yes!

If you would like to see Baron’s flight across to the nest box, just click on this link to my video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDb7LQetKYA&feature=youtu.be

The rest of my Watch was spent watching all the falcon activity at the nest box and above.  After a brief rest, Baron had joined his sisters and they were running and flapping all over the nest box platform and well wall.  A little bit of food was dropped off, but not much.  Beauty and Dot.ca were holding back food, in anticipation of the eyases first flights.  Of course Baron was now considered a fledgling, no longer an eyeas.  lol

I ended my Watch at about 7:20 pm, 12 hours after I arrived this morning.  Tired but very happy that we had a successful fledge today.  The Watchers will gather early tomorrow morning in anticipation of more flying by Baron and possible fledge flights by Rosetta and Voyager.  The Rochester Falcon Fledge Watch continues.  Please consider joining us downtown if you have any free time to help out.

Here are some pictures from my Fledge Watch today.  Remember to click on any you would like to see in a larger format.  If you hover your cursor over a picture, it will tell you what it is a picture of.  Enjoy!

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This is how I will always remember these three.  Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 5th, 2013 at 11:30 PM and is filed under Fledge Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.