By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

My evening falcon watch began at 6:50 pm.  Kathy O, Dan S. and Lisa McK. had arrived before me.

Beauty was on the platform in front of the nest box and Dot.ca was on the NE corner of Xerox.  They had not seen Orion.  I decided to join Kathy O over near Xerox to  see if we could find O.  We ended up on the east side where we had a good view of DC.  Soon after we parked our cars, DC lifted his wings and took off heading south.  He was in no hurry and there was no vocalization.  We lost sight of him and wondered if he might be heading out to see Pigott at the BS location.  After a few moments of checking out the surrounding area for Orion, with no luck, we headed back to the BSB to join Lisa and Dan there.

When we arrived, Lisa told us that she and Dan had seen a falcon fly from the FCT area, over the river and heading towards downtown.  This was at the same time we had DC on Xerox and Beauty at the nest box.  So it was Orion who did the flyby.

We settled in and chatted for  awhile as it got darker.  There was a lot of work being done on Main St, the street just north of  Broad St.  We could see the very bright flood lights set-up in front of the OCSR and dump trucks were lined up on the Main St. Bridge.  Not sure what was going on, but they sure were noisy.  There was a lot of activity on the BSB tonight, including a photographer taking all kind of pics well after dark.  Joggers and walkers and bike riders and skate boarders, people just milling about and four falcon watchers sitting on chairs on the sidewalk in the middle of the BSB.  A curious sight to those not used to us.  lol  But, many will stop and ask and learn.  🙂

At 8:00 pm, we noticed that Beauty had left the nest box.  Lisa yelled out, “there she goes!”.  Beauty was passing over us, over the river, very low.  I saw her turn her her head down towards us as she flew over.  I do swear that they recognize their watchers.  lol She continued south east and we lost sight of her behind the library.  At the same time we were watching Beauty fly off, Dan spotted Orion on the tippy top of the Xerox building, west side.

Lisa had to leave, but Kathy, Dan and I were determined to see Orion fly to his nighttime roosting spot.  The mosquitoes were out and they were hungry.  Lots of very small, white moths descended on the BSB, covering our cars and landing on us.  Bet the bridge spiders and birds will be happy tomorrow morning!  The nighttime flight of the river ducks started.  For 20 minutes, we watched the ducks fly over us in both directions in the dark.  Sometimes a single duck, sometimes a group of ducks.  Back and forth, back and forth with the street lights below making them glow.  Strangely beautiful.  One evening a few days ago, Orion chose to chase the ducks.  lol

At 8:20 pm, we noticed that Orion was gone from the top of the Xerox Bldg.  We all checked out the area to see if we could find him.  Dan is the one that spotted Orion come in for a landing on the 2nd Ibeam down on the OCSR (south side).  He landed in the middle of the Ibeam, waited just a bit before starting his run for the elevator shaft end.  He would run and stop.  Look around a bit and start running again.  He would repeat this a few times before tucking into the elevator shaft wall at the east end of the Ibeam.  Orion’s Run brought him safely back to his nightly roosting spot.  When Dan arrived for his early morning watch tomorrow, that would be the first place he checked!

So tonight we saw all three downtown Rochester Falcons and Joyce, MAK and Lynda saw Pigott at the BS location earlier today.  I keep checking for KPT at KP, but have not seen him in over a week.  So that was 4 out 5 of our falcons seen today by the Rochester Falcon Watchers out and about with their eyes to the sky!

Well goodnight everyone!  Enjoy this beautiful weather.  Fall is in the air just a bit.  I’ve seen some trees already starting to turn colors.   Here are some additional pictures from this evening’s falcon watch.  Remember to click on them twice to enlarge them.  Enjoy!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 5th, 2012 at 10:41 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.