Fledge Watch/Rachel makes an appearance 7-18-17
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
The temperature at the start was 62 (F) 17 (C) with calm conditions. A cool breeze developed after the sun came up
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Last night I saw 2 Seneca Towers falcons after 8 pm as the sun was setting. There was one on the nest box railing at the Hawkeye plant that stayed there until just before dark when it dove straight down and never resurfaced. The other one flew in and landed on the roof below the nest box structure for a moment then it flew off when I wasn’t looking. No way of telling if they were adults and/or juvies.
The sun had clouds above and below it as it made its descent towards the horizon.
This morning after checking the east side first I found Beauty on the northeast corner of the Powers building. From Aqueduct St. and Main St. I took a couple pics before heading over to the Court St. bridge (CSB) to join Dan. I love getting out of my car to see his great big smile to greet me!
It stayed that way for about an hour so I turned my attention to the river on the south side of the CSB. There was a juvie Great Blue Heron, mama duck with 3 babies, and a juvie Black-crowned Night Heron (BSNH). I also checked the north side of the CSB and found an adult BCNH right below the railing of the bridge.
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The 3 ducklings stuck together and near to their mom as the juvie GBH and BCNH were on either side of the area. The larger duck family never came out of hiding while I was watching. A Fedex plane came through behind Powers and I spotted a Great Egret perched on a log above one of the locks south of the CSB.
Around 6:30am Beauty seemed to change her stance as if somebody else was there or flying in so I checked the cams and sure enough Dot.ca (DC) had snuck in and gone into the nest box. The Beautyful one then went in for a quick bow with her mate and then out again and up to land on the cam.
A few minutes later DC snuck back out of the nest box without Dan and I seeing and around this time Rachel came crashing in to knock mom off the cam and take her place. Beauty flew out and returned to land on the northeast corner once again.
Soon after, Beauty flew over to the Mercury money bag where she remained for the rest of my watch. Rachel also stayed on the Powers cam until Dan left for home.
I drove over to Aqueduct St. real quick to share space with the girls before ending my watch at 7:20am.
I certainly was happy to see Rachel as I left downtown smiling! 🙂
Click on the links below to see today’s videos
July 18th, 2017 at 3:39 PM
Wow! Juvies everywhere! Downtown, ST and on the river. Does my heart good. Thanks, as always, for the beautiful and thoughtful pics, MAK.
July 18th, 2017 at 4:10 PM
My pleasure Pat! 🙂
July 18th, 2017 at 8:59 PM
MAK, thanks for the help I got my settings fixed & am getting your tweets again
July 18th, 2017 at 9:49 PM
That’s great Linda-glad to be of service! 🙂
July 19th, 2017 at 12:29 PM
Rachel is one big beautiful girl! Thanks for the opportunity to see her again, MAK.
July 23rd, 2017 at 2:14 PM
My pleasure Barb! Rachel is Beautyful like her mom! 🙂