By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I had things to do this morning, so I didn’t get downtown until 9:30 am.  I read all the tweets that came through from MAK and Larry O about the 3rd Falcon.  I truly hope that it was Orion coming back to visit, but no positive ID could be made.  By the time I arrived, the early morning excitement was over and the downtown area was filled almost to capacity with people.  Parking was at a premium.  The Women of Faith were in town, so the Broad St Bridge (BSB) and surrounding area was packed.  Greentopia was happening on the pedestrian bridge at High Falls and I ran into (not literally!) a whole pack of bicyclists making their way around the downtown area.  There was no way to join MAK and Jeanne on the BSB, so I went over to City Hall to Watch Beauty up on the Frontier Communication Tower with Dana.

There was a crew of electricians in the City Hall Parking lot replacing all the old style lights with new ones.  Beauty was under the platform on the east side, looking east.   We decided to go over to the Andrews St Bridge to get a better view of the area.  Larry told me the last place they had seen the juvie this morning was near the St Paul Apartments.  We wanted to get a closer look.  There was a lot of pigeon activity, but we never found a falcon there.  Beauty took off from the FCT, flew over the river and ended up on the top Ibeam of OCSR on the south side.  I tweeted it out and MAK confirmed she was there.

At 11:00 am, just after Jeanne and MAK left, Beauty returned to the FCT and landed pretty much in the same spot she had just vacated, below the platform.  Kathy tweeted that she was at the BS location an that she had both Dot.ca and Pigott there.  Dana joined me back over at the City Hall Parking lot to see what Beauty was up to.

At 11:40 am, we watched as Beauty tucked herself further into the framework of the tower.  We then spotted a falcon fly in from the west, definitely a Peregrine and we believe a juvenile.  The young Pefa circled over head a few times and then slowly headed SE.  I lost sight of it when it flew in front of the sun.  There was no vocalization from Beauty or the young falcon.  Was Beauty “hiding” from the youngster?  Was the juvie looking for an adult?  Was it Orion?  There was no way of knowing.  I so love watching  their behavior.

Beauty remained inside the framework, preening and dozing.  Dana and I decided to check out the downtown area to see if we could find any other falcons, but neither of us had any luck.  We both joined Kathy at the BS location for a little while.  Both Pigott and Dot.ca were there.   We didn’t stay too long, because they were working on the road near the building.

At 2:40 pm, I returned downtown and found a falcon on the top IBeam of OCSR, south side.  I quickly checked the FCT and saw that Beauty was there.  We had left Dot.ca and Pigott over at the BS location.  Hmmmm, who was this falcon?  Dana returned and we both decided that this was Dot.ca.  Definitely an adult.  I found one place to park on the BSB and watched the falcon from there.  Lots of people were walking through and asking questions about the falcons.  We sure do draw attention and we’re all happy to answer questions.  Most people are so excited to see them and tell me stories of falcons in their own cities.  It’s a lot of fun exchanging information.  🙂

It was 3:30 pm and time for me to head home.  On the way, I stopped at KP, but unlike last night, I did not see KPT.  I did see a Kestrel hunting though.  She landed on a light pole near my car and I got some really good looks at her.  Gorgeous bird!

I plan on going back downtown tomorrow morning, to join my fellow Watchers on the BSB.  Everyday something new happens, something to keep our eyes to the sky for!

Here is a link to my Shutterfly album with more pics from today.  Enjoy!

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsmzZk4ctWFx

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 15th, 2012 at 11:28 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.