By Rochester Falcon Watcher  MAK

Thunderstorms followed by partly sunny skies with a temperature of 68 (F) 20 (C)

Click on the pics to see the full view

Last night around 6:30pm when I went out to the west balcony on my 16th floor at Seneca Towers I spotted 3 falcons flying over the nest box area at the Hawkeye (HE) plant half mile away.  At the same time a juvie appeared above me and flew to the south end of the building and headed east out of view. I only saw it because it whined at first and drew my attention to it. It’s nearly impossible to get a camera up and get the falcons in focus when they suddenly appear out of nowhere as they are too close and fast. So at this point I had 4 at the same time-the whole family! Only 3 stuck around taking turns flying on and off the nest box railing at HE and talon tagging.

Sometime in between all of that the boys came over to visit me. I looked up and there they were flying right at me at eye level then they flew to the north end of the building playing talon tag and whining before disappearing. Back to HE to observe some more flying in, landing and flying off again. I caught a jet skier zipping by down in the river at one point during my watch. Activity on the river is at a minimum due to the raised levels of Lake Ontario and all water ways linked to it.

The brothers were hanging out next to each other on the HE railing when they flew off and next I had them chasing Seth in front of me whining very loudly and then all 3 disappeared past the south end of ST. Seth came through soon after all by himself-seemingly he had given his rowdy boys the slip. I spotted 2 Great Blue Herons up river in a tree.  After a bit, I noticed not one but two falcons on the south ledge of the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge eating. For sure the one closer to me was a juvie-the one that was at the west end of the bridge may also have been a juvie-distance and poor lighting makes it hard to say for sure. Seth flew by me twice during this time. Both bridge birds flew off at different times and both times I missed their departure but one of the juvies flew past me and went north. The tour boat called Harbor Town Belle made a u-turn in the river below me as darkness fell and headed back to the north.

It was wet when I left ST this morning but when I got downtown it started pouring as a couple thunderstorms rolled through. It was quite a while before I found a falcon after checking the Court St. bridge (CSB)for the second time. I saw that Dan had arrived and was sitting in his car waiting for the storm to pass. I drove over to the Radisson Hotel to check the north side ledge of the OCSR elevator shaft. Nothing there but when I went up to Bragdon Place where I could see the south ledge I found Dot.ca (DC). It was dark at first and still raining some but after a while I was able to get a half way decent pic of him and his white chest.

After it stopped raining and DC flew off I headed over to to the CSB to join Dan. We watched DC stoop on something around 6:30am over the Cornhill then fly over to land on his favorite hunting spot on the Spectrum tower. He wasn’t there for long when he flew off to the southeast until we couldn’t see him anymore. I then switched my attention to the river on the south side of the CSB where the ducklings reside. An adult Black-crowned Heron was hunting and a juvie Great Blue Heron was also down there. They had a stand off in the end when the BCNH made his way back to where the GBH was hanging out. Dan and I were marveling over how the sun was lighting up the clouds top edged from behind.

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I spotted Beauty on the top I-beam west corner of OCSR just before 7am and soon after Dan called it a watch so I drove over to the hole to be closer to the Beautyful one. She flew southeast at 7:25am.

I went in search of the rest of the family but was unsuccessful. I spotted Beauty on the northeast corner of the Powers building. She wasn’t there long and I next found her back on OCSR west corner top I-beam.

For the next 45 minutes I looked for more PEFA’s but never did find any so I ended my watch just before 9am. It’s that time of year when we’ll be seeing the juvies sporadically as they get ready to leave the area to start their life’s journey. Until then, I’m sure they’ll keep me smiling! 🙂

Click on the links below to see snippet videos of last nights ST falcon watch and today’s downtown watch

https://youtu.be/5xb6hbLHMOI

https://youtu.be/VwoLmJ25pyo

This entry was posted on Monday, July 17th, 2017 at 4:25 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.