By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Fellow watcher and friend Dana had been reporting that she’d been seeing a falcon at the Medley Center (aka the Irondequoit Mall).  Her first report was on August 25th.  Dana tweeted again this morning that there was a falcon on the roof at Medley Ctr.  MAK was able to check this falcon out and with a clear picture of the the bands, get an ID from our friends at the Canadian Peregrine Foundation (thanks Tracy and Kathy!).  Also, thank you Dana and MAK!

From Tracy:  “This falcon hatched in 2013 at the Etobicoke Sun Life nest in Ontario, Canada, and named Little Big Frank after one of our dear fallen comrades who was a falcon watcher for a decade at this nest site.”

Big Frank was a close friend to many of us here in Rochester and is dearly missed by all of us.  Having his namesake visiting here in Rochester and doing well makes us very happy!  🙂

At 5:25 pm, Dana tweeted that the falcon was back at Medley Center on the glass peaked roof.  I decided it was time to visit with Little Big Frank.

I arrived at the old mall at 6:15 pm.  It took me about 15 minutes to find a falcon.  It was on a white cap on the roof at the center of the mall.  I could only see it from the south side.

We also found out that Big Frank is our Dot.ca’s half-brother.  They have the same father.

Big Frank (BF) took off heading north.  I drove over to the north side and waited to see if he would return.  It wasn’t long before I saw a bullet heading directly towards me!  It was Big Frank and he was skimming the parking lot, about a foot off the ground. He passed me and just missed grabbing a pigeon that had been flying close to the ground.  BF flew towards the mall and over it, landing on the glass peak.

He took off again heading south.  It was time to drive over to the south side of the mall.  This mall has been closed for many years and there is very little traffic.  The parking lot is starting to be overgrown with grass and weeds, and there is a lot of garbage.  The only store still open in the mall is Sears, which is located at the east end.

Back on the south side, I found Big Frank on the roof above the carousel, which you can still see behind the glass.  Here are a series of pics I took while he was there.

At 7:25 pm, he took off again.  I circled the mall twice, but could not find him.  It was starting to get dark, so I called it a watch and wished him good luck on his hunt.

On the way home, I checked out Seneca Towers.  There was one falcon on the north side ledge above the windows.  That’s all I was able to see there.

Oh, and one other thing we learned today.  Big Frank was banded a female, but they were not certain if he was a he or a she.

Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2015 at 11:21 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.