FalconWatchEyes to the Skies |
Part of the photos at the below link show callidora on the widows walk around 7:30 AM, July 12, balancing and trying to eat her morning meal. The remaining photos are from previous watches.
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You can view the (15) photos at the below Kodak web site.
Rochester Falcon Watcher: Carol P.
With Jemison out of commission, hopefully temporarily, it was a joy to see his big sister Callidora doing so well. At 4 pm, I joined Brian H on top of the Sister Cities Ramp garage. It was blistering hot, but we found some shade and settled in to watch Callidora and Beauty on the Frontier communication tower. For the first couple hours, there wasn’t much activity.
Brian explained that Beauty had earlier flown in with a pigeon. Callidora was right on her tail, literally! She tried to grab the pigeon with her beak, but Beauty would not allow it. Beauty landed on a platform on the shorter of the two comm towers and Callidora landed next to her, finally wrestling the pigeon away from her mother. With no time to prepare the meal, Beauty stood by as her daughter seemed to question why she wasn’t being fed. 😉
Brian said Beauty was softly kaking while Callidora slowly figured out what she had to do. Feathers were plucked and dinner was finally self served. Callidora is a quick learner, especially when it comes to food!
Twice during the afternoon, Callidora went to the pigeon, finishing most of it by the time I arrived. Fed, with a full crop, both Beauty and Callidora settled inside the frame work of the taller communication tower, finding shade. Archer visited for awhile and then took off flying over the gorge, then heading south, back towards the city where we lost sight of him.
MAK joined us and we continued to watch. The first hour is no longer free in the city ramp garages. It costs $1 for the first two hours. When my two hours were up, we headed down to street level and parked in front of the City Hall. There are nice benches located there. Dana and Lou joined us on the Watch.
During the last hour and 1/2 of my Watch, Callidora took off a couple times, soaring around the area and always returning to the communication tower. When I left at 7:30 pm, Callidora had settled on the top arm of the comm tower and Beauty was still within the framework below her. She is flying really well and her landings are getting better and better.
I left the others to continue the Watch.
Rochester Falcon Watcher: Carol P.
While a big portion of the country is currently in a heat wave, many Rochester Falcon Watchers have been braving the scorching temperatures. We all take keeping an eye on “our” fledglings very seriously.
Today’s Watchers included, Dan S, MAK, Brian H, Joyce, Marcia, Carrie, Shaky, Kathy O and Larry O (not related! lol).
Brian remained downtown during the daytime, taking cool down breaks at the library and drinking lots of water. He saw Callidora do some really nice flying during the afternoon. Most of the day, Callidora was located on the Frontier Communication Tower, keeping to the shade. Archer and Beauty were with her on and off during the day, but most of the time she was by herself. Although I’m sure A&B were keeping an eye on her.
A little before 8 pm, Archer flew up to the communication tower and Callidora started crying. As far as we knew, she had not been fed today. Archer circled nearby, eventually heading south. Soon after, Callidora took off, heading in the same direction. Carrie and Shaky found them both on the Monroe Cty Jail’s communication tower.
The Watchers split up. Marcia, MAK and I were located on the middle of the Broad St. Bridge, facing the Time Square Bldg. (TSB). We could see both A&C on the comm twr. The radio came to life, “Archer just took off heading north!”
I couldn’t see where he went, but I certain saw him returning towards us. He was successful on his hunt. Archer flew over us, clutching prey. He ended up on the TSB on the base of the SE wing. Feathers flew! We reported to the others that Archer had food.
The others watching Callidora, called to say that she had taken off and was heading our way. We watched as she flew towards the TSB, circling and screaming. She eventually landed next to Archer. In Marcia’s pictures, it shows that Archer attempted to feed her, but she would have none of that. She grabbed her dinner and Archer was off, returning to the jail’s communication tower.
When I left at 8:30 pm, Callidora had finished her meal and had returned to join her father on the jail’s communication tower. It was a nice ending to a very long, hot day. 🙂
Keep cool everyone!
Brian H continued watch this afternoon on top of South Avenue garage after Carol P left to take time to cool down. Oppressively HOT! He is taking periodic breaks to cool down. He cannot Twitter. Brian reported via text messages:
12:24 pm – At library cooling off. Left Callidora on communication tower tucked in, settled down.
1:15 pm – Callidora still tucked in the framework of Comm. Tower. Beauty flew around and left.
1:36 pm – Callidora flew for 5 min. over downtown. Great flight, she came right over me twice. Soared and talon tagged by herself. Landed back on Comm. Tower. Good landing, yelling while flying.
1:38 pm – 1 adult landed on top arm of Comm. Tower.
1:52 pm – Callidora is tucked back in gridwork, south middle of red part under platform. Adult still on upper arm.
2:01 pm – All 3 on Comm. Tower. Alarm kakking – yelling at guys working on Frontier roof.
2:32 pm – Going for water. It’s hot out here. Archer and Callidora on Comm. Tower.
2:37 pm – Going to library for air conditioning and water.
3:42 pm – I’m back on garage. Callidora is where I left her. Tired after all that flying. No Archer or Beauty in sight.
Edit 4:40pm – Callidora took short flight twice around Comm. Tower with great landing.
Watcher: Jim P
We had a little trouble locating the falcons this morning, but a little searching revealed them on some familiar territory. Check out the latest story and pictures.
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/07/callidoras-breakfast.html
Larry O
To put it succintly, Callidora’s lessons began in earnest today.
When Cleo & I arrived downtown, Carol P, Dawn (& Maggie), Don and Suzette were at Falcon Watch Central by Thompson – Reuters. Bringing me up to speed, they reported that A & B & C were all on the north side of OCSR in the shade.
The watch stayed quiet until a brief glimpse of Archer overhead. Shortly after that, Beauty appeared overhead – but only briefly. Then shortly after that, Callidora came from OCSR and flew towards TSR. Her flying looked more robust, more steady … more confident. With any new juvie, her landing lacked grace. It seems that the drag introduced by dropping the talons on landing interrupts the air stream upon which they depend. This change in aeronautics obviously disrupts their performance until they gain experience.
Once again all settle down, until …
Archer performed some flight lessons for Calli. She stayed on TSR while Archer soared and stooped and did fly-bys.
Archer and Beauty came back. We think Archer came in first, but pretty quickly someone said “Three falcons in the air”. Every one scanned around and we all confirmed that A & B & C were on the north side of TSR and in flight.
The important thing is that they were flying together.
The first maneuver was an aerial circle by the three. They performed three or four loops of the circle. The flying was tight enough that it could be said that no one was in the lead.
From the circle they broke off so that Callidora was flying solo with Archer and Beauty introducing her to talon tag. It was amazing to see the parents come in to their daughter, approach and just delicately enough show Calli how to stop flight, perform the tag and regain aeronautical control. Beauty and Archer each took turns (at least two apiece) before breaking off the schooling lesson.
Callidora returned to TSR (NW west). A & B disappeared, but later Beauty came in with food which she put down by Calli. Callidora raced to the food and Beauty took off again.
I may have forgotten some of the details but it was a fantastic 10 minutes of activity from the family.
Watcher: Jim P
Before Jemison ran into trouble on Friday, he did some terrific flying. I captured the action and I’ve finally had a chance to write it all up:
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/07/before-trouble-some-terrific-flying.html
From Lou
We arrived last evening around 5:30 pm to find fellow falcon watchers all huddled in the parking lot on the north side of the Times Square building. Jemison was on a window structure on the north side of the TS building, about 25 feet above people walking to their cars in the busy parking lot there. There was an event letting out at the War Memorial in addition to normal traffic, so the streets, sidewalks, and parking lot were quite busy, causing a heightened level of concern in the watchers as they waited for Jemison to take off so that they could confirm whether or not he was okay. About 7:30, he finally did take off and it didn’t go well. He went down. Luckily, he flew west and avoided the traffic on State Street and allowed for a much easier rescue. We took him to a rehab station in Churchville, NY where he was examined by a rehabber and a veterinarian. We left him there for further evaluation, so as Carol shared in her report, there will be more communication once there is more certainty as to what’s happening.
Attached is an album with some pics (click on the below pic of Jemison’s takeoff to view)
As Jim P. reported, Jemison did go to the ground a 2nd time. We noticed when he was on the low ledge, that his right wing was slightly drooping. When he finally took off at around 7 pm, he could not gain any altitude, landing in the middle of a thankfully empty street on the NW corner of the Time Square bldg.
The Watchers sprang into action. It was time to get Jemison the help he so needed. We were able to surround him and capture him, placing him in Joyce’s carrier. Dana gently transferred him to her larger carrier in the back of her truck.
Now a decision had to be made. It was late, the start of a holiday (what is it with holidays) and no vets offices, including the one he had been at earlier, would be open. I decided to take him to Mariah’s rehabber. Jeanne called and we got the ok to bring him in, plus verified that the vet would be able to attend to him. Carrie and Shaky volunteered to contact Terry at Wild Wings who graciously offered some appropriate food for our young fledgling. Other Watchers there that added there support, were Kathy O, Marcia, Dan S, Lou, MAK, Carla P, Debbie and others I may be missing. There is no better group of caring folks.
Dana, Lou and I headed for the rehabber with our precious cargo, saying our goodbyes. We arrived at the rehabbers and Jemison was checked over by both he and the vet, who gave Jemison a very thorough exam. It’s too early to say what might be wrong. Xrays will most likely be needed. But for now, Jemison is resting quietly in a medium sized carrier, sitting upright and alert. He was quite feisty during the exam, hissing and nipping at them. Carrie and Shaky arrived with the food and were able to witness the exam also.
I’ll call for updates and let you all know what I hear.
Watcher:MAK
It was a pretty quiet morning.1 Juvenile on the OCSR building. Beauty on mercury. 1 juvie on Times Square building(TS).Soon after I arrived watchers JimP,JimD and Debbie came along.We saw Beauty and Archer stoop over the river. There were lots of ducks in the river including a Great Blue Heron.The city was really hopping as people from all directions started coming to the BlueCross Arena @ the War Memorial for a religious convention. Watcher Diane came along and showed me some pins and stuffed peregrines she had made to sell for rfalconcam. KathyO joined us and then she and Diane went to the south avenue parking garage to get a better look around.Meanwhile Jemison was up at the base of mercury all morning.Iwrote down some notes and noticed 2 mounted police. Started to take a picture and that’s when the quiet morning ended. Suddenly an officer told me one of our falcons might be down at the hotel down on State St. I jumped in the truck drove down there just as animal control was crating Jemison to load in van and take to vet.
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