By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Well, for two days now, no Watchers have seen or heard young Orion.  We were talking about the possibilities tonight on Watch. Usually our young juvies are well on their way by now, but this year was different.  Orion was a very late hatch and an only child.  Recently, we have seen him hunt on his own, and quite successfully.  I was there to witness his hunt and I was very impressed with his skills.  Orion has impressed me a lot over the last few weeks.  Because he was the only fledgling this year, he got the undivided attention of both Beauty and Dot.ca.  Of course we can’t be sure that he won’t return for a visit.  I truly hope he does!  He has been a joy to watch.

Tonight I arrived downtown around 6:00 pm.  When I arrived on Broad St., I was happy to see two falcons, side-by-side, on the OCSR.  I drove down to Aqueduct St to get a closer look.  I was hoping that one might be Orion, but it was two adults.  Beauty and Dot.ca were on the top IBeam a few feet apart.

They seemed to be content and they were very quiet and preening.  They showed no indication at all that they were worried about the missing Orion.  In the past, if a juvie was down, the adults would usually let us know, by their behavior, where the young falcon was.  We have many examples of this from the Mariah and Kaver years, including when Rhea Mae fell down the stack on her first flight.  Mariah sat on the catwalk above where we found Rhea Mae deep below ground level at the bottom of the stack.  In fact, the whole family moved out there keeping watch over her.  We are all watching Beauty and Dot.ca’s behavior.   So far they have been very calm.

There is a whole team of Rochester Falcon Watchers downtown keeping an eye out for any sightings of Orion and we will report if we see him.

If Orion has left us to start his journey, I wish him safe travels, fair winds and successful hunting along his way.  🙂  I hope to see him in the future with a mate and family of his own.  This is my hope for all of our young falcons.  <3

Here is a link to a Youtube video I took of Dot.ca this evening.  Dot.ca was showing us who Orion got his running abilities from.  We watched amused as he ran back and forth across the Ibeam.  He’s also got the head movement thing going.  lol  At the end, Dot.ca takes off and flies directly over us.  I was able to keep him on camera for a few seconds before he blasted over us, stooping to the south.  I’m actually shocked I got any of his flight.  I don’t know if you’ve heard, but these birds are really fast!  hahaha!  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6rjm2SCCq8&list=UUkL-m83o7PVaDyTQPEbi-aw&index=1&feature=plcp

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2012 at 10:51 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.