Morning Falcon Watch-a visit from Genesee 8-28-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
A bit of a chill in the air this morning at 52 (F) 11 (C) degrees but the sun shone bright with blue skies
Last night (Thursday) a falcon flew past my living room window as I sat in my recliner-this prompted me to get up and go out to the west side balcony to have a look /see. Once out there I spotted Seth on the south side ledge of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge. I looked down as a juvie started whining as it flew at the tree top level toward the north end of the building out of view. Seth took off a couple minutes later and it went quiet as well with no more sightings.
This morning I saw nobody from the balcony but when I checked the north end of Seneca Towers (ST) from the back of the residents’ parking lot I was greeted by Billie and Seth on the top window ledge. I’ve not seen Billie up there for a very long time.
<Click
Around 6:38am while I was taping them, Billie flew east followed by Seth a minute later-they didn’t return so I left for downtown.
From the Andrews St. bridge I spotted Dot.ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office (KO) playpen netting so I went down to State St. near Brown St. for closer viewing. During my commute DC flew up to the northeast corner of the launchpad then back down to the netting as I pulled over.
While I was taping him, DC flew off toward the river and went into a stoop before leaving my field of vision just before 7am.
When he didn’t return I left to search downtown and I didn’t have to look for long as I spotted Beauty on the base of Mercury from the Court St. bridge. I whipped over to the Broad St. bridge (BSB) to get closer to the Beautyful one. She had a small piece of meat that she picked up in her beak to show me.
There were bees buzzing around her head as she stood there over her small package. At the time I thought perhaps she wasn’t eating it because there was a juvie to give it too. She flew off while I was looking down in the river so I don’t know if she took it with her or not but she definitely wasn’t eating it.
<Click to see the bees
So I set out once again in search of and ended up back by KO with DC who was back on the northeast corner of the playpen netting. At this time Donna (thanks a lot) tweeted out that there were 2 falcons on the Frontier Communications Tower so I beat feet over there to find Beauty on the north platform railing and a juvie on the west side railing with its back to me.
Based on size I thought this was Genesee, I drove over to Plymouth Ave. to view the juvie from the front-it flew off to the north just as I started to tape it.
I caught up with this juvie around 8am as it was perched on the 16th floor southeast corner of KO. From State and Platt St. I could also see that DC was still up on the KO netting and Beauty remained on FCT. It wasn’t long before I was given a few leg shots to ID Genesee as the juvie that keeps coming back home.
After looking around his surroundings Genesee flew off at 8:17am, circled the tower twice then knocked dad off the netting and took his place as DC flew east. Genesee spent lots of time preening in a hyper fast mode that had his head spinning so fast I thought he might need traction when he was done! lol
<Click
At 9am Genesee flew east toward the river going into a stoop just like dad had done earlier before going behind the apartment building I was parked next to on State St. by Platt St.
I didn’t find him again and I hope he keeps dropping by for these little visits. I left for ST where I found Seth on his north end top window ledge as I crossed the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge around 9:30am.
I checked him out from East Ridge Rd. near St. Paul Street as he kept looking down at something below him either on the bridge,in the river or the trees in the gorge. I left him to check those places from the west balcony of my 16th floor at ST but all I found was an Osprey to the south in the Osprey tree on the west bank of the river gorge.
I ended my watch at 10am after having been given plenty of reasons to produce smiles galore! 🙂
Click on the links below to see today’s videos of which there are many and a photo album with more pics
August 28th, 2015 at 2:28 PM
Your pics of Genesee on Kodak are great, MAK. Ironically, I find that in the late afternoon/early evening it’s not easy to get good pictures there. The sunlight hits it at all the wrong places. Morning must be better.
August 28th, 2015 at 4:06 PM
Yes Pat, that’s because the sun needs to be behind you for the best back lighting. In the morning it’s in the east, behind me when I’m on State St. on the east side of the KO. If I go over to west side of KO then the sun is behind my subject making for silhouetted pics. OK? 🙂
August 28th, 2015 at 4:31 PM
Yep. I find there aren’t many good places to park on the west side of KO in the late afternoon/early evening when the sun would be behind me, especially when there’s a game at Frontier Field.