By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I left the house today for the bus and halfway to the bus stop I realized I didn’t have my phone. So after walking back home to get it I managed to miss the 6:19 as I watched it go flying by I couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds from making it! Oh well, I waited an hour for the next one and got downtown around 7:40am- too late to see Dan or Larry and so the search was on for falcons. For a change of routine I walked up Main St. to check from it’s bridge. No bumps on any buildings I could see from there.

I doubled back and stopped by Tim Hortons for a decaf coffee(regular makes me shake too much for holding camera and binocs steady) on my way to the Broad St. Bridge(BSB). No falcons to be seen from there either. Next I walked over to City Hall to check FCT with no luck. I also went up to the top of the Sister Cities Garage to look around-nada! Hmm where could our elusive Peregrine Falcons be this morning!? I then walked down to Kodak Office to no avail. Yikes I was getting a workout on this day!

Back to the BSB I went enroute to the South Ave. garage for my best view of the city. Just before I opened the door to go up to the top of the garage I turned and took a look toward the river-SUCCESS there was a falcon on the base of Mercury! But not just any falcon, it was our young and handsome Orion.

I shared space with this very animated and photogenic Peregrine for almost 45 minutes. He took off and flew west out of view in the direction of FCT so I figured I would walk back over there to see if that’s where he went.

Click pics for full version

Upon arriving at Fitzhugh and Church St. I could see no bumps on the tower so I sat down on my bench and figured I would just stay put until it was time to leave. A very nice man came over and asked what I was photographing and when I told him as with many people he mentioned the Kodak falcons. I set him straight on their story and then I showed him some pics on my cameras LCD screen. He thought I was a great photographer and I assured him that it was the camera that made me look good. Then he told me that he used to be a photographer and that I had an eye for it and the equipment is only as good as the operator. Well I just set it on auto and click away. lol He introduced himself as Tom and I told him who I was and we shook hands and then he went to his van and brought a folder full of pics he had taken. One pic in particular peaked my interest and he gave it to me! And here it is:

While we were talking I heard Orion singing and as I looked up I saw him on the tail feathers of another falcon tho I’m not sure who it was I knew Orion by his lovely voice. They both landed on the north side of FCT where I had no chance of seeing them from where I was sitting. Just as quickly as they flew in they flew back out again heading south. I thanked Tom for this wonderful close up pic of an owl and the  knowledge he shared with me about picture taking. He went about his day and I packed up to end my watch. I used to be kind of shy but as I’ve said in the past these falcons compel me to do things that I never did before.  And  I am very thankful  for all the people I have met since I came out of  lurkdom as they all have made me smile for one reason or another!  🙂

Click the links below for my all Orion photo album and videos from the day

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrGkA

http://youtu.be/GqHljwKjdiY

http://youtu.be/FBLMC4hZSls

This entry was posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 at 1:58 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.