By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I caught the 5:58am bus downtown this morning landing downtown while it was still dark out so I couldn’t see any falcons at first but that changed at first light. I was looking down in the river from the north sidewalk of the Broad St. bridge(BSB) where I spotted a raccoon on the rocks in the middle of  it! I took a pic but it was too dark to tell what it was.  I then put my binocs up to Mercury where I spotted Orion on the base.

Click the pics for full version

It was starting to lighten up and it also started to rain as KathyO pulled up followed by Joyce. I jumped in the car with Kathy as she was the closest to me to escape the brief downpour. After the rain stopped we all got out and watched Orion fly over to the Rundell Library to join his mama, Beauty who was there on the northwest corner with breakfast. And yes he was singing quite loudly!

Click it to see B&O

Beauty was plucking and eating while Orion waited patiently to her right a few feet down farther on the ledge. We could see the yellow jacket bees fluttering around both their heads. They’ve been a real nuisance for the past month. Down below in the river Kathy brought my attention to 2 juvie Black-crowned Herons and 1 Great Blue that was fishing near them. CarolP joined the watch as we had such a nice treat of being so close to this mother and son encounter. Both Beauty and Orion looked at us as we watched them.

Beauty  Orion

Orion was looking up,down and all around as he waited for mom to give up her meal to him. He makes my neck hurt just watching how he jerks his head around and tips it upside down!

Beauty did eventually bring the food closer and let him get his share then she flew out over the river and returned to the northwest corner to stand guard while Orion ate. The Beautyful one started to sing – obviously Orion has had some musical influence on her! lol

Beauty flew off to the Times Square building coming to rest under the northeast wing. Shortly afterwards Orion flew off the library with his breakfast and landed on the southwest corner of the Thomson Reuters building. He didn’t stay long and left the tasty treat on the roof as he flew south. Beauty flew over to Widows Walk and was perched on the northeast corner below the railing.

Orion and Dot.Ca ended up on the jail tower tho we couldn’t agree on which one was on the 2nd arm and which one was in the middle framework we did agree they were both up there. It can be very difficult to ID them on the jail tower cuz you can’t get real close. Orion stooped off the top arm at one point but came up empty taloned.

Kathy and I headed back to the BSB area after leaving Cornhill where we were watching dad and son on the jail tower. As we passed the Blue Cross Arena a line was forming for tickets to the Bruce Springsteen concert who will be here in Rochester on October 30. Beauty left the Widows Walk and it started raining again so Kathy and I decided to end our watch and go home.  A very decent watch it was as we saw all 3 downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcons up close and personal which put smiles on all our faces! 🙂

Click on the links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrHxA

http://youtu.be/pfUP31AZ0jo
http://youtu.be/_P_bfpi972Q
http://youtu.be/X991BFNAUts
http://youtu.be/SCjvo3I0sjI
http://youtu.be/YgPLK98MV3M
http://youtu.be/2uYkcdt3K0s

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 8th, 2012 at 1:46 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.