By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Another warm, muggy morning here in Rochester with a temperature of 68 (F) 20 (C) blue skies with a few clouds

Click on my pics to see the full version

I spotted a falcon on the northwest roof of Hawkeye last night when I checked from the west balcony of my 16th floor at Seneca Towers (ST). 10 minutes later another falcon flew in from the west and buzzed the one on the roof and then went over to land on the nest box ring. The roof bird flew off to the south out of view soon after that.

10 minutes later the remaining falcon flew off and about a half minute later I had a screaming juvie flying towards the north end of ST and that was the last I saw of any falcons as the sun set. I did spot a Great Blue Heron in a dead tree up river before calling it a watch just before 9pm.

<Click

This morning I began my watch at 5:15am on Woodbury St. where I spotted Rachel on the south side of the roof near the southwest corner. She kept looking towards the 5 Star Bank-thinking she was looking for her mom I drove over to Broad St. and found Beauty on the east side of the bank. I decided to go to the Strong Museum of Play parking lot where I would be able to see them both but when I got there they were gone.

I went to the Court St. bridge (CSB) to see if Dan had seen them. He said that he watched Rachel fly over the library heading west with a small package, possibly a starling, and that he lost her behind the Blue Cross Arena. While we had no falcons I checked on the river wildlife. Two duck families that I’ve been monitoring on the south side of the CSB have dwindled down from 10 to 3 and the other from 8 to 2 ducklings left-most likely taken by the Great Blue Herons (GBH).

<Click

I saw one GBH and an adult Black-crowned Night Heron hunting on the north side of the Broad St. bridge and also a mink was diving for food between the Court and Broad St. bridges.

I walked up to where I could see the Frontier Communications tower (FCT) and Widows Walk from next to the Dinosaur BBQ grill. I could see a falcon on the 2nd arm of FCT whom I thought was Dot.ca (DC) and Beauty on the Powers cam. After checking the archives I found that Beauty and DC had been in the Powers nest box bowing just a few minutes prior to that. Beauty left Powers while I was watching the mink down in the river.

Dan left at 6:30am so I took a ride around downtown and from the Andrews St. bridge I spotted a falcon under the northeast cube of FCT. When I got over to the City Hall parking lot on Fitzhugh St. that bird was gone but I found the Beautyful one under the southeast corner of the platform facing me.

A few minutes later I heard the sound of a whining juvie. Rachel was on the east side in the lower red section of the tower with her back to me. And then Beauty moved to show me her back as well.

Rachel was very alert to all the bird activity below her, twisting and turning her head every which way to look at them. She turned to face me for a bit and then around again to show me her back before flying off to the south. I looked up to see that Beauty was no longer where she had been.

<Click

I caught up with Rachel who had gone to the jail tower. I took a couple pics of her from Troup St. and then I had to get going.

I ended my watch at 7:40am happy to have seen Rachel but wondering if Ontario had left the area for good as he hasn’t been seen in a couple days. It’s sad to see them go but it sure does keep you smiling while they’re here! 🙂

Click on the links below to see videos from my watches

https://youtu.be/LnjfUmbhG1I

https://youtu.be/G2InYvNS784

https://youtu.be/sXFz1vQAE9g

This entry was posted on Friday, July 21st, 2017 at 2:55 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.