By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

4:00 – 8:30 pm

Afternoon Watchers: Lisa McK, Joyce, Carrie, Shaky and Carol P.

Temps in the 80’s, sunshine, mix of clouds and blue sky with a light breeze.

Gorge, glorious gorge!  🙂

It seems that they love to visit it in the afternoon.  At least that’s when I’ve been catching them there.  Today they were flying in the gorge from 5:00 to 5:30 pm, and my friend and fellow watcher Lisa McK was there to enjoy it with me today.

Today started the same way as yesterday.  Beauty was up on the Kodak Tower on the south side arch ledge.  I looked around, but had no luck finding any other falcons.  It was time to head to the gorge.

My favorite bench was open, so that’s where I headed.  From there I am close to the east side of the gorge, with a sweeping view of the gorge, falls, and downtown.  Oh, and the Kodak Tower too.  I also enjoy watching all the visitors to the gorge and love talking to them.  For the first hour, it was very quiet.  Just as I saw a juvie falcon flying high over the east side of the gorge, a wedding party made their way out onto the bridge.  They were there to take pictures.  What a beautiful setting!

Lisa McK joined me on the watch.  We were also joined by our friend Ron.  He loves to walk around the city and take pictures. He asked if we thought the falcons would be here soon and we said we hoped so!  We would not be disappointed.  At about 5:00 pm, Cadence flew in and landed in the Falcon Sucking Tree.

A few minutes later, Genesee arrived and Cadence was off, joining her brother.  Watch out gulls and anything else they felt like swooping on!

We watched from the pedestrian bridge for about a minute, then it was time to head for the observation deck.  I arrived at the observation deck first, Lisa was last to arrive.  The juvies were all around us and over us.  Stooping and swooping on each other and everything else.  When Lisa was walking up the path, one of the juvies swooped on her and then a dog walking on the lawn behind us.  lol  Anything is fair game!  What a joy to see them in the gorge.

Here are my pictures from today and at the end another video.  Be sure to click on the picture to see the full version.  Enjoy!

Here is the link to my Youtube video.

https://youtu.be/PubwYKxTnLA

After about a 1/2 hour, Cadence settled in the falcon sucking tree and Genesee headed south towards downtown.  It wasn’t long before Cadence followed her brother.  Beauty was still on the Kodak Tower.  Lisa and I decided to head back to the pedestrian bridge.

It was very quiet after that.  We received a tweet from Joyce, who was downtown looking for the falcons.  At 6:14 pm, she reported that Dot.ca was on the north side of OCSR on the north corner.  So, we had all 4 Rochester Falcons seen this afternoon.  Joyce joined us on the pedestrian bridge.

At 7:15 pm, we had three falcons in view.  Both adults had moved.  Beauty was now on the Times Square Bldg, under the southeast wing.  Dot.ca was on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower and there was a juvie below him on the southeast corner of the platform.

Shaky and Carrie joined us and Carrie spotted the beaver swimming around the south end of the island below us.  There were two Great Blue Herons, one on the small building on the island and another that had landed on the fence on the east side of the falls.

Joyce left us at 8:00 pm.  At 8:20 pm, a juvie flew into the gorge carrying food.  We were losing light and could not tell if it was Cadence or Genesee.  For a few moments, the juvie flew around, attempting to land on different spots, including the Falcon Sucking Tree (FST) and the gorge wall.  Finally s/he landed on a spot on the wall just past the FST, but we could tell s/he was not comfortable there.  After a couple minutes of moving and adjusting the hold on the prey, s/he took off.  This time heading west across the gorge.  We all watched as the juvie flew over the buildings and finally landed low on the Frontier Communication Tower.

Lisa and I moved to the east end of the bridge so we could see that the juvie was now eating.  Carrie called out and pointed up. An adult falcon was flying over us, also carrying prey.  We are pretty sure this was Beauty.  She flew towards the Kodak Tower and landed on the south side launch pad.

Shaky and Carrie remained on the bridge, while Lisa and I drove over to the Frontier Communication Tower to see if we could ID the juvie eating there.  It was to dark to see the bands.  Beauty flew over us, heading south.

It was 8:30 pm, when we ended our watch.  Tomorrow is Sunday and I hope that the juvies will again visit the gorge. Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 25th, 2015 at 11:52 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.