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Eyes to the Skies

Fledge Watch/Double Whammy 6-23-17

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a muggy warm morning with calm conditions and a temperature of 75 (F) 24 (C)

Make sure to click on my pics to see the full version

Last night I saw 2 juvies at Seneca Towers-one was flying above the trees on the west side of the gorge and then it landed on the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge south side ledge tucked up on a part of the structure. The other juvie came out of nowhere and flew up to the roof above me on the west side balcony out of view. I have  included a super short video of the flyer before it went to the bridge.

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I arrived downtown for my morning fledge watch at 5:05am and spotted a juvie under the southeast wing of Times Square (TSB). Soon after, another juvie landed on the south railing of Widows Walk (WW). It was still very dark out.

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I drove to the Court St. Bridge (CSB) after both juvies flew off. When I got there Dan said that Beauty was on OCSR and Dot.ca (DC) had flown out to the Spectrum Communications Tower (SCT). The distance and light conditions didn’t allow for pics at that time. A bit later both Rachel and Ontario flew out to the tower to join dear old dad while he hunted while Beauty was on the south side of Widows Walk (WW).

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After a while DC left the tower and flew to the Powers railing near the northeast corner where he got driven out by a Kestrel that kept buzzing him-it looked like he went into the nest box for some peace and quiet. I believe it was Ontario that followed him from the tower and went to the southwest wing ledge on TSB.

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After Beauty met him at the Powers nest box he flew to OCSR west corner top I-beam. Around 6:45am DC flew over to the jail tower and joined the Beautyful one. Larry and Zeke joined our watch. Rachel finally left the Spectrum tower and ended up on TSB on the ledge above the nest box.

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In the next 10 minutes we witnessed Beauty scream over to the Cornhill area and snag a pigeon. There were 3 pigeons and one maneuvered right into her as she stopped it dead in its tracks. She flew north with it leaving our field of vision. I started looking at some pigeons that were flying over by the South Ave. parking garage. Just as I told Larry and Dan to look DC came in out of nowhere and grabbed one of those pigeons over the Broad St. bridge right in front of us and took it out of view as well. We then spotted Beauty caching her package on a southeast corner ledge on TSB then over to cam 1 then off quickly to OCSR. WOWEE WOW WOW what action packed fun for us! No pics as it all happened so fast. Meanwhile Rachel remained on the column.

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Dan and Larry were satisfied after seeing the adults hunt and ended their watch as dark clouds moved in. You can see the dark sky behind Rachel in the next pic. She flew off and circled the TSB tried to land under the southeast wing and came up short then flew north out of view.

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After searching I was only able to locate Beauty and DC on the jail tower.  Beauty took off and returned.

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Got a text from Carol at 8am that there was a report of a bird down and unable to fly over near Seneca Towers at East Ridge Road and St. Paul St. last night around 9pm. We agreed to check it out and so I ended my watch and we met over there. We didn’t know what kind of bird but we thought it could have been one of Billie and Seth’s juvies. We spent an hour and a half looking and didn’t find anything anywhere around the bridge or Seneca Towers area so we went our separate ways. What a morning watch I had today that had me doing a lot of smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to view my videos. The first one is a short snippet of the juvie flying in the gorge last night across from my apartment

https://youtu.be/hUgp_wELn1c

https://youtu.be/6ifNuzsr3W8


6 Responses to “Fledge Watch/Double Whammy 6-23-17”

  1. WLABarb Says:

    You certainly had some breathtaking moments, MAK!

  2. Annie in MT Says:

    Double whammy is right and very exciting. It’s great that you spotted the Seneca Towers juvies. Happy to hear they finally surfaced and I am sure they made you smile. The rest of the report is exciting too. Thanks!

  3. MAK Says:

    I certainly did Barb! 🙂

  4. MAK Says:

    Oh yeah it was exciting to see those Seneca Towers juvies Annie. Hoping to see a lot more of them! 🙂

  5. Carla Provenzano Says:

    Another wonderful report, and definitely a double whammy day of Falcon watching for you, MAK!

  6. MAK Says:

    Carla, I’d like to have lots more double whammy days! 🙂


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