Rochester Falcon Watcher: Carol P.

What a day!  I’m not even going to mention Watcher names.  I think every Watcher that could make it downtown came to help search for Callidora, even two ladies from Watertown!  🙂  Even the Falconcam team held their meeting near the Times Square Bldg.  Everyone wanted to help.  In all the years I’ve been a Rochester Falcon Watcher, we’ve never lost a bird during fledging, and it wasn’t going to happen now!

As both Larry O and Jim P reported, at 12:30, Callidora took flight from the Talesca bldg aka the Four Corners bldg.  All day, Beauty had been bothered by workers on a building just north of the Times Square bldg (TSB).  They couldn’t have chosen a worse day to start working on the roof of this building with Callidora just fledged.

When Callidora took off, she headed towards the TSB, gaining altitude.  She landed on the metal grid work at the top of the TSB, clinging like a bat.  She never did land on a ledge.  When she let go, she flung out her wings and headed towards the river and then swung around the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial.  Her intentions were good, she really did try to return to the TSB, but she was tired.  We lost her somewhere over the Civic Center.

Watcher spread out and attempted to find her with no luck.  All afternoon Watchers began to gather.  Everyone was really concerned for Callidora’s safety.  I think most of us walked a few miles today, checking building roofs, getting inside taller buildings to check the roofs below.  No one was able to find her and it was starting to get dark.

Around 8:30 pm, Larry decided to take one more walk around the area.  With Cleo by his side, he headed west down Broad St, crossing Exchange St.  At the same time I heard him yell something out from across the street, I noticed that Beauty was skimming the tops of the buildings in the area that we thought Callidora had landed.  I quickly caught up with Larry and Cleo and we continued to walk west.  Other Watchers joined us, walking and in cars.  By this time Beauty had continued west and we thought maybe she had been on a hunt and nothing else.

Larry and Cleo were first around the the corner on N Fitzhugh, now heading south.  The rest of us were hanging back, checking the buildings.  This is when Larry yelled out, “I HAVE CALLIDORA!”  “I SEE A RED BAND!”  We all ran towards Larry’s position and one by one we saw what he saw.  A beautiful brown just fledged juvenile name Callidora!  and Beauty was flying just above her!

The Rochester Falcon Watchers arrived, gathering in the dark on the corner of N Fitzhugh and a no-name one-way street, next to a very old, beautiful church.  She was on the roof of the Monroe County Jail on the north side, not very far from the TSB.

We were all so relieved.  WooHoo’s! echoed thr0ugh the nite.  Both Larry and Cleo got lots of hugs tonite.  🙂

For 8 hours we had lost our wayward traveler.  But now she was safe and we were happy.  I had drained 3 camera batteries tonite and didn’t have even enough power to take one picture of Callidora.  But, it didn’t matter.  My long lens friends were clicking away.  There will be plenty of pictures for everyone to see.

It was a long day of Falcon Watching, but it was all worth while.  My thanks to everyone that made it out to help find Callidora.  What a great group you are.  and special thanks to Larry O and Cleo.  We can all sleep easier knowing that she is safe.

When I left, Jemison was safely on top of the TSB and Beauty was on Mercury’s foot.  I’m not sure where Archer was.  What a wonderful way to end this day.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 at 10:42 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch, Fledge Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.