By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

A much cooler day today.  Very pleasant for a change.  The gathered watchers were wearing jackets by the end of the evening.

I arrived downtown at the usual 3:50 pm, first checking Kodak Office, Frontier Communication Tower, a quick view of the downtown area, and the area surrounding the Times Square Bldg.  It wasn’t until I parked on the Broad St Bridge, that I noticed that there was something wrong with Mercury’s (the statue’s) head.  There was a 2nd set of wings on his helmet and they were moving.  Hmmm.  A closer check showed me just what I suspected.  Yep, there was a juvie falcon up there.  I never did get a positive ID.  I believe it was one of the girls, based on size.

From Aqueduct St (aka “the hole”), I was able to keep an eye on this head sitting juvie and both Beauty and Dot.ca on the top IBeam on the south side of OCSR.

After awhile, the juvie stretched out her wings and took off heading towards the very top of OCSR.  Another juvie joined her and they played a good game of talon tag.  While this went on, both Beauty and Dot.ca took off. The game moved out over the river and towards downtown.  It was time for me to move to the Broad St Bridge.

When I got up there and looked around, I found three juvies up on top of OCSR, where all the antennas were located.  Susan C and her friend Ian joined me.  After resting for awhile, two of the juvies came off of OCSR, and they started a new game of talon tag.  Or was it a continuation of the old game?  They both ended up on the Times Square Bldg at the north east wing ledge.  When we looked back up at the top of OCSR, we saw that juvie #4 was up next to the one that remained there.  Larry O joined us and he and Susan verified that we still had two on the Times Square Bldg.  Yes, they were still there.  So, we definitely had all four!

That’s when we noticed that Beauty was eating on the library above the river.  She ate her fill before carrying the remainder up to the base of the Mercury statue where one of the girls claimed it.  More and more watchers arrived for the evening watch.  Kathy O, Lisa McK, Dan, Dana, Lou, Carrie, Shaky, Jeanne and a quick stop by Joyce on her way home.

Beauty sounded a warning KAK and was off!  Dot.ca joined her to escort two Turkey Vultures out of the area.  Beauty returned and landed on Mercury’s heel and Dana and Lou found Dot.ca out on the Frontier Communication Tower.

We all relaxed and chatted while things remained quiet.  Larry O spotted the adult Black Crown Night Heron in the tree near the library and I’m pretty sure I spotted a mink running along the shore on the east side of the river.  Lots and lots of Mallard Ducks on the river with assorted gulls.  The water was higher than it had been after all the rain we had yesterday.

While we were relaxing, a young falcon by the name of Mercury, took off from the Times Square Bldg and quickly flew across the river.  He dove on the Crows lined up on the parking ramp garage, chasing them off.  After he was satisfied with what he had done, he headed back and landed on the fencing below the Mercury statue.  We were all very impressed!  🙂

Dana and Lou decided to see if they could find where the juvies went.  We could only see one on the jail communication tower and Beauty on Mercury’s heel.  Soon after they left, they tweeted that they had found the other 3 juvies on Widow’s Walk (WW).  Lisa and I joined them, while the rest of the watchers remained on the Broad St Bridge.

Soon after I arrived, Nor’easter joined his siblings on the WW.  Now we had all four together again!  The four of them stayed there until just before 9:00 pm, one by one they left the WW and returned to the Times Square Bldg.  Tess and Nettie flew up to the north east wing ledge.  Nor’easter flew around to the front of the building and landed near the nest box area.  We later found out he had landed on the ledge above the nest box.  Mercury took off heading south.  We found him on the jail communication tower.

Lisa and I were the last to leave, so we head up to the Broad St Bridge for one last head count before heading home.  Mercury was on the jail communication tower, one of the girls was up at the north east wing ledge (we think Tesh) and both Nor’easter and we think Nettie were tucked in to the north end of the ledge just above the nest box.  Beauty remained on Mercury’s heel, and we could not find Dot.ca.  He may have gone to his nighttime roost up inside the OCSR elevator shaft.

All the juvies were accounted for, so it was time for Lisa and I to leave.  Here are some pictures from yesterday and today.  Enjoy and goodnight!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2014 at 11:55 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.