Fledge Watch 8-20-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a very balmy and humid 77 (F) 25 (C) degrees at 6am this morning with a busy breeze and partly to mostly cloudy skies
Today was the first time in a while that I didn’t see any falcons at Seneca Towers in the morning. Kids are branching out and the adults seem to be out there with them as well. I am however, still seeing at least one juvie downtown-I guess it’s not over til the fat lady sings eh!?
I found Dot.ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office playpen netting just about the same time as Shaky tweeted out that there was a falcon on the west corner top I-beam of OCSR. I stayed with DC briefly then went down to park on State St. across from the Rochester Plaza Hotel to see that it was Beauty on OCSR with her back to me.
After a few minutes the Beautyful one took off heading southwest. As I looked up toward Times Square I thought I saw another falcon meet Beauty over Exchange Blvd. then they quickly went out of view.
I went in search of her and instead found a juvie on the southwest corner of HSBC on the east side of the river from Woodbury Blvd. I drove over to Chestnut St. for a closer look but I couldn’t get a clear enough pic to see if it had leg bands or not so I can’t say if it was one of ours or just one passing through our fair city. It was easy to see that it had a full crop though!
This juvie flew off at 7:22am going in the direction of the river to the west.
10 minutes later I spotted a juvie on the 2nd arm of the Frontier Communications tower from the Andrews St. bridge. By the time I got over to check it out it was gone. I think it was the same one that was on HSBC.
After a look around for it I found Beauty and DC on KO from State and Platt St. She was on the northeast corner of the launchpad and he was below her on the left side of the east arch above the playpen.
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I switched angles and drove down to Brown and State St. where I could see the front of DC. The lighting was not as good there but at least I wasn’t looking at his back from there.
They were both doing some preening-DC pooped and was napping as well.
I left them around 8:20am and headed for home to check for the ST falcons. I had no luck finding any falcons but when I got up to my apartment I spotted a Great Blue Heron and an Osprey in the same tree up river from ST on the west side bank. This is the same tree I’ve seen both species in before but not at the same time. The Osprey was eating a fish with its back to me. I officially ended my watch at 9:15am from my living room.
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I guess if you can’t find falcons to make ya smile an Osprey and Great Blue Heron will do the trick! 🙂
Click on the links below to see today’s videos
August 20th, 2015 at 4:45 PM
I think I see bands on the last take-off shot with the legs out behind the juvie. I hate when this time of the season arrives…sigh!
August 20th, 2015 at 8:39 PM
Yeah, I thought so too Ei but just not clear enough to make a call either way. It’s tough to say goodbye to them. 🙂
August 21st, 2015 at 9:23 AM
One thing for sure, the juvie is not from ST. It definitely has bands. Thanks for trying. At least we know they are still around.
August 21st, 2015 at 2:07 PM
The ST juvies are playing in the river trees these days. I think it was Genesee yesterday. 🙂