By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a very dark start to this mornings watch as a thunderstorm was occurring when I left Seneca Towers the rain eventually stopped and made way for partial clearing and a hazy sun broke thru the clouds at times. The temperature was 60 (F) 16 (C) to start

Click on my pics to see the full version

I had to go searching first thing as there were no falcons in sight from the Broad St. bridge (BSB). I found a falcon on the southeast corner of HSBC which I couldn’t ID thru the rain and darkness, plus it had its back to me.

It flew off when I wasn’t looking so I returned to the BSB and found a juvie on the base of Mercury. It didn’t stay much more than 5 minutes before flying off to the south.

I took a ride over to the Frontier Communications Tower where I found a juvie on the northeast corner of the platform railing. I barely got a shot of it before it flew north.

I said ok, I’ll play your silly little falcon games and followed its’ path to the Kodak Office launchpad where it landed on the southeast corner. As I arrived on Mill St. to watch, it walked down to the northeast corner. I was able to see a little red on the right leg so I believe it was Nor’Easter-it’s all in the lighting. 10  minutes later he flew southeast.

I headed in that direction and ended up watching a boy and a girl flying around Bausch & Lomb and Xerox from the BSB. They kept going behind the buildings where I couldn’t see them and then landed on the northwest corner of Xerox.

They started preening so I thought I would go to Woodbury St. where I had a less obstructed view and get ready for more flying. I couldn’t see them on that corner from there and by chance I took a pic to show my view. Lo and behold, while checking the pic on my computer I found 3 falcons flying!

I went down Court St. to the bridge and back up Exchange Blvd. and as I turned onto Broad St. I saw 2 juvies by the base of Mercury. I continued up onto the BSB where I could see one juvie, Nettie on the base-the other juvie vanished. I believe she was searching for food as she checked out the green part of the base as well as the cement part.

Nettie left around 8am-I missed her departure so I had no idea which way to look. After a check around downtown with no sightings I went over to High Falls where I came up empty as well. I left there and stopped on the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) where I spotted Beauty on the southeast cube-she was eating a small morsel, and a juvie was on the small tower top disk with a large morsel.

I drove over to City Hall and tried different spots and angles to see them as Beauty moved off the cube to the beam right behind it. I was too close to see the juvie on the disk so I ended up down on Plymouth Ave. by Frontier Field to observe it.

After a couple minutes a falcon, whom after looking at my pics looked to be Beauty, flew over to the disk and started eating as the juvie flew off.

<Click it

She left while I wasn’t looking so I went to Fitzhugh St. in time to see 2 juvies flying east. I was about to end my watch when I heard all kinds of vocalizing from behind me. As I looked up I saw 2, then 3, then all 4 juvies above me flying south over City Place. 2 of them returned to land on the east side platform railing of FCT-they were Nettie and Mercury. A 3rd juvie flew in past them-Mercury gave chase and returned next to Nettie while the other one never returned.

Mercury jumped down to the platform and another juvie flew in and appeared to land on the north side where I couldn’t see. I checked the north side after a bit of time passed but they all must have left while I was driving over there for when I looked they were all gone.

Now that I had no falcons, I ended my watch just before the 10 o’clock hour. I sure will miss these young falcons when they leave on their lifes’  journey but while they’re still here I’ll keep on smiling about them and their entertaining ways! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/fG8elKZ6ZfI

http://youtu.be/ik91ibZXsSo

http://youtu.be/rEAaHbNY5hc

http://youtu.be/-c1iwIDMpww

http://youtu.be/hr3yNiEHmVY

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2014 at 2:57 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.