By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After work, I arrived downtown at 4:00 pm.  I was greeted by a large mass of dark clouds coming in from the West.  When it finally came through, we just got a few sprinkles in the downtown area.

I checked all over downtown, finally finding Beauty deep within the frame work of the FCT, under the platform.  When I drove over to the City Hall parking lot for a closer look, I saw that her eyes were closed and she was sound asleep.  Sleeping Beauty.  🙂

It was very quiet, so I wasn’t sure if Orion was up there somewhere also.  I now suspect he may have been.  After watching Beauty sleep for close to an hour, and almost dozing off myself, I decided to drive around the city to see if I could find any other falcons.  No  luck, so I ended up on the Broad St Bridge.  I turned my car to face east and then west, just to keep both directions in view at different times.  Because it was sprinkling, I stayed in my car.  At 6:30 pm, I received a text from Kathy O.  She was over at the FCT and she could hear Orion’s screaming, but she couldn’t find him.  I headed over there to join her.

Before I arrived, Kathy found both Beauty and Orion within the framework of FCT.  Beauty was de-feathering a wing of a bird and Orion wanted his share.  It was very small and I do believe that Beauty ate it.  Larry O and Jeanne joined us at this point.  It started to rain again and we moved under a tree near the city hall bldg.  Just as we did, Beauty took off heading SE (6:50 pm).  Orion remained on the FCT and moved about, preening, stretching and a poop before he too took off heading in the same direction his mom did.  We all followed, meeting on the Broad St Bridge.  Larry had spotted Beauty on the top IBeam of OCSR (south side) and I found Orion on top of the elevator shaft.  He was looking down at Beauty and then he flew down and knocked her off!  Tag!  You’re it Momma!  lol

Beauty flew over to the base of the Mercury statue and Orion remained on the top Ibeam.  We were all amused by his antics.  He would stop, then run, then stop and run some more.  He repeatedly did this until he made his way down the whole length of the Ibeam and came up against the wall before the elevator shaft.  This is where he settled down, flattening like a pancake.  Would he stay there for the evening?

While we were watching Orion and Beauty, we spotted a fairly large, dark bird fly down the river towards us.  It landed in a tree near the library.  Larry and I went to investigate and found a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron.  I was very happy to see this bird.  It was a first of the season for me.  We usually had a parent and young down on the river each year.  They were fun to watch as they hunt in the shallows of the river.

At 8:00 pm, we all decided to call it a night.  We were starting to lose light and both Beauty and Orion seemed settled.  I did check KP on the way home and had no luck finding KPT.  Jeanne checked the BS location on her way home and did not see Pigott.

It was another lovely evening for watching our favorite falcons.  Remember to always keep your eyes to the sky!

Here is a link to my Shutterfly album with some pics from today.  No sign on needed.  Enjoy!

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2012 at 11:48 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.