By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

(6:30 – 7:45 pm) – Hot and Humid with Temps into the 90’s (F).  Not temperatures you would expect this late into Summer.

My first and only stop today was the Hawkeye (HE) plant.  After parking at the YMCA to check out the west and south side of HE, I was happy to see a juvenile Peregrine Falcon flying over the building, touching down and taking off again.  For the sake of my reporting, I will say this is a female, due to size.  She was enjoying the warm breezes, bringing her talons down and practicing grabbing things out of the air.  She would flip, and turn on a dime, heading back in the direction she had come from.  Next she would stoop into the river gorge on the north side of the Driving Park Bridge, then return to fly over the building.  The juvie finally landed on the west side, lower roof.  After taking pictures and a quick video, I locked my car and walked out onto the bridge, crossing to the north side.

The fencing on the center of the bridge is very high and there was no way to get a picture until I got down towards the east end.  Just as I was getting ready to get a picture, hoping for a look at her bands, off she goes, stooping into the gorge.  lol  I stood there waiting for her to return, finally she did, hovering over the building and continuing to hone her flight and hunting skills.  I lost sight of her as she passed over the building.  I really think she landed somewhere on the roof, because I did not see her come out the other end of the building.

After waiting awhile, I decided to head back to my car.  I drove over to the east end of the building to check out that side.  Joyce joined me on the Watch, circling the building, but having no luck finding the juvie.  We both met at the YMCA parking lot and chatted for a few moments.  By 7:45 pm, it was already getting dark and we both decided to end our Watch.

I was thrilled to watch this young Peregrine Falcon and hope to see her again soon.  We are still trying to get a positive ID on her, hopefully before she decides to leave.  Or maybe she’ll surprise us and stay for the Winter.  That would be great.

Here is a quick video snippet of the juvie flying over Hawkeye.  It’s not the greatest quality due to the far distance I took it from.  But, it gives you and idea of what I was watching tonight. Enjoy!

http://youtu.be/pNXhba8XyfQ

I’ll leave you with pictures from my evening Watch, all of the juvie at Hawkeye.  Be sure to click on any pics you would like to see larger.  Goodnight everyone!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 10th, 2013 at 10:00 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.