By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a very dark,humid, overcast morning with a starting temperature of 62 (F) 17 (C)

Click on my pics to see the full version

My first falcon was Dot.Ca (DC) after checking downtown I made my way over to the east side and pulled over on Woodbury St. as I always do to check Xerox,HSBC and Bausch & Lomb. I managed to spot DC on the southeast corner in on the roof a bit and I could see that he was eating as he kept popping up so I could see him.

DC was silhouetted by the sun which was behind him so I drove over to Chestnut St. by Martin Luther King Jr. Park. It was there that I saw his bright white chest and the heart on his face that told me it was him.

It was soon after that he finished eating and flew out, touched one of the columns like he was going to land then changed his mind and flew around to the west side where I lost sight of him behind the building. That was the last I saw of him today. About 5 minutes later I spotted Beauty on the RGS antenna from the parking lot of the Inn on Broadway. I quick drove over to East Ave. for a closer look.

I spent the next 2 hours with the Beautyful one as she preened, stretched and rested. Most of the time resting! I kept hoping to see a juvie come flying in to knock her off but that didn’t happen. I do believe the kids are gone for good now-I haven’t seen one since Sunday. I thought Beauty would fly off a couple different times but then she settled back down and when she pooped and still didn’t go I decided I would.

I checked the Brighton Site (BS) since a banded female had been seen there 2 nights ago by Kathy. Joyce and Carol joined her using a scope and long lens camera, but they couldn’t get a positive ID. They thought perhaps it was Beauty as it was dark like her but it had white stripes above the cere which Beauty does not have. After checking all over downtown more than once I concluded my watch on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge at High Falls. I found a Belted Kingfisher, 3 Cormorants and about a dozen Canada Geese on the north side-no falcons.

I ended my watch at 10:30am and headed home to Seneca Towers where I spotted a falcon on the south end of the building perched on a ledge above the top set of windows. It was dark like Beauty and at first it was sleeping so I didn’t see its legs or profile.

Finally after 10 minutes it woke up and turned its head-I knew immediately that this was not Beauty. The malar stripe was way too high to be Beauty. I got pics of both sides of her face and a front view awake and asleep.

Next I needed her to show me some bling-she cooperated by scratching her head with the left leg. She had a black over green leg band and I could see at least one 7 and possibly two. You might recall we had a female juvie by the name of Billie born to Gleig and Diamante (son of Mariah&Kaver) in May 2013 at Central Terminal in Buffalo hanging out along the Lake Ontario shoreline last year. She wore a black over green leg band #77 over AX. It’s a very good possibility that this is her.

There were a couple bees bothering her as I taped a video before quitting for the day. She seemed very relaxed and the fact that there was a lot of white wash (poop) on the building below her told me that she’s been perched there before or another falcon of course. Maybe Veteran has perched there as well-I do hope whoever she is she is bonding with him. He lost his mate Luzerne and I’ve so hoped that he would hook up with another one quickly.

Yep, you guessed it-this made me smile! 🙂

Click on the links below to view todays videos
http://youtu.be/Y2GqER-B-VM

http://youtu.be/dXpAPeeKwNQ

http://youtu.be/LvZ0Y2z6Afw

http://youtu.be/Ndhdx2gmj2E

http://youtu.be/wYnzFvPdRsg

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2014 at 5:26 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.