By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Well the morning started dark and quiet but things sure picked up after a while.  Arriving downtown at 6:15 am with dark conditions I could see no bumps anywhere in the Broad St. bridge (BSB)vicinity so I took a stroll to the east side to check HSBC,Xerox,Midtown and Bausch&Lomb. I found no pefas but on the way back I took Court St. instead of Broad St. and as I approached I observed crows flying out of the trees in Washington Square Park. Hmm I said to myself after all the money and effort the city shelled out to rid the park of these creatures and now they’re right back in it. Not the 20,000 of last year but they are coming back, so what I wonder will the evil humans do next about this situation!?!

So upon returning to the BSB I stood on the north side looking down in the river as the pigeons were starting to stir and come out from below the bridge where they roost at night. I spotted a juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron fishing below the RG&E substation in the river and 15 minutes later Dot.Ca(DC) landed under the southeast wing of the Times Square building(TSB).

You can see that his tail and wing feathers are a bit rough looking due to his molting and he also looks dark in this pic. About 5 minutes later LarryO tweeted that there was a falcon on HSBC most likely Beauty since I had DC on TSB. 15 minutes later DC flew to the Wilder building coming to rest on the green strip by the southwest corner.

I was down in the parking lot next to the Phillipone building and Larry was up on the BSB when I got a text from Donna saying Beauty was at the nest box so I turned to look and there she was-the Beautyful one!

Right after that DC flew off Wilder across to Mercury to perch on the heel of the statue.

I started to walk up on the bridge to take pics of DC with the sun behind me but I never made it for he flew off and the next time I saw him he was flying to the back of TSB. So I walked back down to where I had been by the Phillipone building and could see DC under the northwest wing of the TSB. Beauty was still by the main cam at the nest box when first DC took off and then Beauty toward OCSR where I saw a third falcon meet up with them. I couldn’t see all that took place because buildings were blocking my view but I did see Beauty(the largest of the 3) touch talons with one of the smaller pefas. Next they went low where I couldn’t see them,then I saw Beauty and another one come back into view where upon Beauty dive-bombed the other 2 or 3 times(not very aggressively) and then they all disappeared. I whipped up to the BSB to see if Larry had seen any of it and he told me one of them had food and that he thought there was a possible food exchange attempted before he lost 2 of them behind the Andrews St. apartment highrise next to the Radisson Hotel. DC was on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR at this point in time.

Unfortunately the circumstances and the quickness of the whole incident kept me from getting any pics so we will never know who the third pefa was. My theory of what took place is that Orion was the 3rd falcon and Beauty was trying to give him food. DC tried nabbing it(he often took food from Orion) so Beauty dive-bombed him to shoo him away. I can’t explain why we never saw Orion again as I would think he would have stuck around for a bit.

Larry and I were getting questioned a lot by passersby this morning making it that much harder to keep track of things. At about 8:30am Beauty and DC went to the nest box and renewed their bond by bowing and echupping. They both managed to leave the nest box without Larry or I seeing them and about 15 minutes later Jeanne came to join us. Larry was ready to leave so he waited for her so she could take his parking spot as the bridge was all full up from the Women of Faith event at the Blue Cross Arena. When she arrived he asked if she wanted him to parallel park and she said no. So I was directing her into the spot but she couldn’t quite do it so I parked for her and we had a laugh over it.

Jeanne and I had no falcons so we shifted our attention to the river below where Jeanne spotted an adult Black-crowned Night Heron.

Dana and Carol were watching Beauty on the Frontier Communications tower until she flew to OCSR and landed on the 2nd ibeam south side.

I had to be going and Jeanne was ready too so we left downtown in good hands with Dana and CarolP. I saw 3 falcons this morning which is enough to make anybody that loves them SMILE! 🙂

Check out my pics and videos by clicking on the links below

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrIng

http://youtu.be/pzU2H3_Zbsk
http://youtu.be/ep6QwyZNf-0
http://youtu.be/k7eB4WKQQgc
http://youtu.be/6fn0R5u7wcg
http://youtu.be/LqiWcDewY3Y

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

The weather people were calling for a cold front to pass through Rochester (NY) today.  When I left work to go downtown to check on the falcons, it was still warm, but that was soon to change.  On the way, I passed Kodak Office and saw that the scaffolding on the High Falls stack was almost up to what remained of the catwalk.

Next stop the Broad St Bridge where I spotted Beauty on the top IBeam of OCSR, south side.

Dark clouds were moving and so was the cold front.  I got out of the car to check out the river and grabbed my jacket.  It was chilly.  Not what I was used to on my afternoon/evening Falcon Watch.  Usually it was oppressively hot with bright sunshine.  This was very refreshing!

I got to talking with a couple folks about the falcons and didn’t notice until 4:30 pm that Beauty had left.  Thanks to Donna’s text, I knew she left at 4:18 pm.  Thanks Donna!

I jumped into my car and drove around downtown, until I found Beauty on top of Xerox on the south side on the 6th column in from the SE corner.  This is the spot we usually see her roosting at night.  Guess the passing of the cold front, which included heavy rain, thunder & lightning and wind, sent her to this spot.  I found a parking spot on the street near the Geva Theater.  From here, I watched the storm pass through.  Beauty did not move the whole time I was there, except for flying from OCSR to Xerox int he beginning of the Watch.

During the time I was watching Beauty, Kathy O was checking out the BS location where she found both Pigott and Dot.ca on the vent at the back of the building.  One on each end like bookmarks.

At 6:20 pm, it was still raining and Beauty didn’t look like she was going anywhere during the storm, so I decided to leave to have some dinner.  But, on the way, I wanted to stop at KP to check on KPT, who I had not seen for awhile.  I have been checking there every day on my way home from my downtown watches with no luck.  But tonight was different.

It started to pour again and it was hard to see the stacks we would normally see KPT on.  I pulled my car over to the side and took a quick look with my binoculars.  Through the pouring rain, I could just make out an object on the railing in front of the red door on the east stack.  Could it be?  It had been so long since I had seen a Peregrine there.  I went up to the parking lot we are allowed to watch from and took a couple pictures.  YES!  There was definitely a falcon there.  WOOHOO!  I really thought KPT might have migrated, I was happy to see him.  Of course, assuming that this was still KPT and not another falcon passing through.  Certainly no way of knowing for sure.

So, between Kathy O and I, we saw 4 of the Rochester Falcons this evening in the rain.  I would have loved it to be five, but Orion was not seen by any Watchers again today.  Miss the little guy.  I will always keep my eyes to the sky in hope of see him some day.  <3

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Arriving on the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) this morning I was greeted by a gorgeous eastern sky and as I looked over at OCSR a falcon flew off the west corner top ibeam. This is one of Beautys’  favorite spots so I assume it was her.

I checked HSBC area on the east side with no luck and so I went to the BSB and parked myself on a picnic table by the Rundell Library. As I sat there looking around I spotted a big huge spider in its web attached to a light pole and there was plenty of little bugs caught in that web.

Finally about 7:15am Beauty showed up on the west corner top ibeam of OCSR. I left for the hole so I could observe our Beautyful resident downtown female Peregrine Falcon at closer proximity.

I set up my chair by the corner of the Keybank and looking down Aqueduct St. to Main St. I noticed a very large crowd of kids in their school uniforms at my bus stop and then 3 cop cars pulled up. The crowd thinned out real quick and then a cop drove up through the alley to ask me if I saw the fight. I missed the main event but that’s perfectly fine with me.

After that Mike one of the parking lot attendants stopped by to ask about the falcons. He witnessed Jemison fly into a window on the backside of the Telesca building in 2010 thus injuring himself. Then a visit from DebbieH on her way to work and right after she left Beauty was gone from OCSR but Dot.Ca(DC) was on the top ibeam south corner and then he too flew off. 5 minutes later a woman named Chris who works in the building that Subway resides in came up to me and said I’ve been dying to ask what everyone is always looking at and she thought it was Hawks. I straightened her out on that and told her a few things about our soap opera here and then I gave her a rfalconcam business card. She thanked me and said it was a wonderful thing that people volunteered their time to look out for the falcons. I agreed! lol

Boy what a difference a day makes. Yesterday I saw very little in the way of  falcons and today I’d seen both Beauty and DC plus had some good chit chats with my friends and met a new one. Donna gave me the heads up that Beauty had been to the nest box very briefly(probably while Chris and I were gabbing) at 8:01. Thanks so much to her for all the help she is always giving me while I’m downtown by myself. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up on your own and when people watching the cams can help it’s much appreciated even if I don’t always acknowledge their efforts.

I left the hole to head up to the BSB and when I got to the intersection of Exchange and Broad st. I looked to the east with my binocs spotting a falcon looking  bump on Bausch&Lomb(B&L). I then proceeded to the South Ave. garage for a birds eye view of what turned out to be Beauty on the north side upper roof.

Suddenly I heard very loud vocalization from close by. I looked up to see a falcon chasing pigeons above me and around the back of Midtown where I lost sight of it. There were many more pigeons scattering everywhere and Beauty turned around to watch showing the front of her. About 15 minutes later she took off  flying right above me on the garage past the Radisson, across the river and going behind the OCSR where I couldn’ t see her. I then spotted DC on the OCSR perched on his south corner top ibeam spot. I came down from the garage and when I had a view of the OCSR DC had gone down to the 2nd ibeam.

After 5 minutes passed DC flew off after a larger bird(probably a hawk) behind the Crossroads building and that would be the last I saw of our pefas. I went to catch the next bus home with a big old smile on my face for having an active morning watch! 🙂

Click the links below to veiw pics and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrIcA

http://youtu.be/ygk0BpCWElc
http://youtu.be/-MW4NSkW1T0
http://youtu.be/nRXyT40QFiw
http://youtu.be/-QsfVWvv1Zs

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Still no sightings of Orion reported by the Rochester Watchers.  With Orion gone (at least for now), Beauty has been spending a lot of time at the nest box.  Today was no exception.  She was there the whole two hours I was on Watch and didn’t leave until 7:45 pm.  Here’s a picture of Beauty from Pancam (Cam #1) just before she left the nest box.  A much better picture than I was able to get.  🙂

I had to leave my Watch early (at 6:00 pm), but Kathy O continued to tweet her observations from the BS location.  Larry O had reported at 5:00 pm that he saw nothing there.  Kathy arrived there around 6:00 pm and she found one falcon on the east side of the south side vent.

Kathy O’s Tweets

6:10 pm, she found Pigott in cubby, whining.

6:11 pm, falcon on vent gone now…maybe only had one and it moved to cubby…Can’t see both spots from one place.

6:11 pm, two falcons…one in west side cubby…one on SW corner roof above.

6:50 pm, Pigott remains on SW corner of roof…DC on east side of south vent…Fairly quiet…every once and awhile, P will remind DC she is here.

7:00 pm, Both left during last tweet…quiet now…have circled several times…no falcons…going downtown.

7:10 pm, Kathy arrives downtown to find Beauty still at the nest box.

7:20 pm, Quiet downtown…no sign of DC.

7:21 pm, Beauty still on Cam #4…still no sign of DC.

7:45 pm, Kathy O left the downtown area while Beauty was still on Cam 4 at the nest box.  Beauty left for parts unknown at 7:45 pm. No one was there to report where she went.  It was dark by that time, so hopefully she went up to her roosting spot on the Xerox Bldg.

On my travels today, I saw that they were starting to cover the outside of the High Falls stack with scaffolding.  We found out recently that this last stack at the BeeBee Station near Kodak Office would be taken down.  It’s kind of sad to me because I have so many memories (good and bad) about that stack and the other two that used to stand nearby.  This is the last of the three stacks that Mariah and Kaver young would go down during their first flights.  Because of this, the RG&E folks cut out doors at the bottom of each stack that allowed the young Peregrines to climb out unharmed.  Half of the catwalk has been taken down.  A catwalk that all of the babies plus Mariah and Kaver would sit on to rest and to look over the gorge.  It was definitely a birds eye view for the birds.  With all three stacks gone, it will be a different looking place for sure.

A special thanks to Donna for helping me out today, letting me know that Beauty was at the nest box.  I don’t have one of those fancy phones like most of my Watcher friends have, so I rely on the forum members that help out in this way.  🙂

Debbie H, your help was invaluable this morning.  Thanks for bringing in Beauty and Dot.ca during MAK’s watch, so we knew they were both around and safe.  lol 😉

It was another beautiful, summer day here in Rochester, NY.  A perfect day to keep our eyes to the sky!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Boy it sure was a quiet watch this morning since Dan is on vacation this week and his buddy Larry isn’t coming down to the bridge I kinda don’t know what to do with myself when there’s no falcons either. Well I just need to switch into off season mode after enjoying our young Orion making things exciting around here.

Upon arriving on the Broad Street Bridge(BSB) there wasn’t a falcon to be found which was the theme today. I took a walk over to the east side to check HSBC but I had no luck there either so I took a couple pics just for fun of HSBC and Xerox as I stood below them.

I walked back to the BSB and sat at a picnic table by the Rundell Library where I could see the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT) as well as Times Square, OCSR,jaill tower,Mercury and the river area. DebbieH came over to join me on her way to work and right after she arrived so too did a falcon flying in from the southeast. It landed under the northeast wing of TSB and then another falcon flew in from the north and flew near it as they both flew off. Dot.Ca went to the top ibeam southeast side of OCSR and appeared to be eating something small. Beauty flew around to the backside of the Crossroads building and disappeared.

It happened so fast I could only get a pic of whichever one of them was under the wing as it flew off. Debbie left for work and DC ate what he had and left as well. That made me falconless again for a few minutes until I noticed a pefa fly in from the east and go behind the northeast wing and seemed to be readying itself to land back there. I went down to State St. to check but found nothing up there so i thought I might as well go to City Hall and check FCT as long as I was almost there anyway. Again I struck out, so I decided my best chance to find one of our fine feathered friends was to go to the top of the South Ave. garage. On the way I looked in the river for a photo op but there was just the usual ducks and gulls. So on top of the garage and having no luck finding a pefa I decided to call it a watch and head for the bus stop on Main St. Although I had such a brief time to observe Beauty and DC I still felt I had reason to smile for having seen them at all! 🙂

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today is day #4 with no reported sightings of young Orion.  Looks like he’s begun his life journey, but I do hope we see him again sometime doing well.  We will definitely keep on the look out for him, even checking the surrounding area.  We’ve had juveniles, especially the males, that stuck close to downtown, visiting now and then, but staying mostly on the outskirts of the city.

After work, I arrived downtown around 5:00 pm.  After checking out the FCT and other spots north of downtown, I drove over to the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  Shaky & Ei were helping by letting the Watchers know that Beauty was in the nest box.  With the sun full in my face, making it very hard to see the nest box (NB), I decided to go down to Aqueduct St. where I had a nice shady spot to watch from.  I set up my chair where I had a view of the nest box and the old Changing Scenes Restaurant (OCSR).  It was very quiet down there and I was enjoying the sun and warm temps.

At 6:10 pm, a falcon flew in and landed on the top IBeam, south side, of OCSR.  All I could see at first was the back of the bird.  Shaky posted on RFalconcam Now (these are tweets that go out directly to the Watchers on the ground, what the Watchers on the forum are seeing.  This way we can get help from the forum folks about what they are seeing on the cameras. Kathy O joined me.

I soon got an answer from Shaky that Beauty remained in the nest box.  Well that answered my question.  Beauty was still in the nest box and Dot.ca had just arrived, landing on the top Ibeam of OCSR.

(6:40 pm)  Dot.ca soon took off and circled around to the other side of OCSR.  Now where did he go?  He was quickly back, landing again on the top IBeam, more in the center.  At first he was ee-chupping, but quieted down quickly.

At 7:00 pm, Dot.ca took off again, flying fast over us and heading south.  We lost him behind a building, so we did not see where he went.  Ei then tweeted that Beauty had also left the nest box.  Well that was that for watching falcons this evening.  Lisa joined us just before DC took off.  We all went up to the BSB, but it was too late to see where Beauty and Dot.ca went.  They weren’t on the jail tower or any other buildings and I could not see either of them flying above. Now where did they go.  We remained on the bridge until it was close to 7:40 pm and getting dark.

Lisa and Kathy said their goodbyes and I decided to take a look out at BS, because that is the way they were heading.  It was dark there, and I believe I got a glimpse of one falcon in the shadows, but other than that, it was very quiet.  Not a peep from any falcons.

On my way back from the BS location, I made one more trip through downtown.  I could not find any falcons, and again it was very quiet.  Where they both went, I’ll never know.  Hopefully they will be back showing themselves in the morning to MAK.  🙂

Well, we may not have seen Orion, but seeing Beauty and Dot.ca is a wonderful thing.  It makes me want to continue to keep my eyes to the sky to see all it has to offer!

Thanks for continuing to read our Watch Reports and leaving such nice comments.  😀

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Upon my arrival downtown this morning I could see no falcons anywhere from the Broad St. bridge(BSB) so I took a walk over to the east side of our fair city. As soon as HSBC came into view I spotted part of a falcon hanging over the roof edge on the north side. Beauty has always liked to to hunt from HSBC in the early morning and who could blame her with all the pigeons that reside in that neck of the woods! I kept walking until I got to Chestnut and Broad St. where there is all kinds of construction activity taking place making for a lot of noise and traffic congestion. I set myself up and started clicking away with my camera.

Beauty was plucking away at her prey near the northwest corner making a feather cloud for all the pigeons in the area to see and take warning. In one of my videos you can see pigeons flying in and out of the frames. After 15 minutes she flew off and disappeared behind Midtown heading west toward the Times Square building.

I started heading back to the BSB stopping below Xerox where the TSB came into view and as I looked through my trusty binocs I could see a falcon under the northeast wing and it appeared to be eating. I thought it must be Beauty but then at that very moment I got a text from Donna saying that Beauty was at the nest box.

Please click pics for full version

I thought maybe Beauty had seen Orion and took her food to him but when I finally got over there I could see that it was Dot.Ca(DC) eating up on the TSB. Wow did Beauty give him her food or did she stash it and he found it? I swear I could use jets on my sneakers sometimes so I don’t miss important stuff like that! lol Beauty was on top of cam 4 and I think she might have wanted DC to come down to the nest box for a bow and bonding refresher as she was whining a bit but he wasn’t interested.

Beauty hopped down to the deck and DC went to the back side of the northeast wing ledge out of sight. He left at some point but I can’t say when cuz I wasn’t positioned to see it. Beauty meanwhile stayed at the nest box until around 8:30am when she flew over to OCSR heading straight for the 2nd ibeam west corner and pulled back at the last second continuing on behind Crossroads and out of view to the west. I figured a trek to City Hall was in order so I packed up and headed over. I found Beauty on the northeast cube of the Frontier Communications tower(FCT).

She napped a little and preened a little for half hour or so before working her way into the middle of the structure where I had a hard time finding her as usual. Then she perched on a beam behind the northwest cube. After 20 minutes more she got antsy and flew out going southwest. I left to go back to the TSB area and on the way Donna reported that Beauty was at the nest box and she was whining again thus making me think she wanted DC to come to the nest box again for bonding duties. I couldn’t see her until I went up on the BSB and then I spotted DC as well on the top ibeam at the south corner of OCSR.

I walked down to the hole(Aqueduct St.) for a closer watch standing by the back of Keybank. 10 minutes later he stooped down toward the river and that would be the last I saw of him as he quickly vanished behind buildings. A common problem when you are in the hole is being surrounded by buildings so you miss a lot when the falcons fly off because a building blocks your view! There were guys power washing and painting at the back of the Phillipone building as I passed by. I got a text from Donna 20 minutes later that Beauty had left the nest box so I went up on the BSB one more time to have a look around. I could find no falcons around and decided to call it  a watch. Before I left to catch my bus I took a few pics down in the river for even when there’s not a falcon to be seen nature comes through and puts a smile on your face! 🙂

Click links below for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrIUg

http://youtu.be/-CYLO1wF4PU
http://youtu.be/m-L2DuD8GQY
http://youtu.be/j_btEqWZtDs
http://youtu.be/_fUNrdVTcOE
http://youtu.be/HXAdPLNmYDw
http://youtu.be/ycj23Aypxck

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Remembering 9/11, eleven years later. Today we talked about that horrible day, remembering and never forgetting! 🙁

After getting out of work today, I decided to head directly downtown to see what was going on with our falcons. Both Beauty and Dot.ca had been seen earlier, and I was still hopeful that Orion would make an appearance. Sorry to say, he was not seen again today for the third day. My first stop is usually the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). I pulled up in front of the City Hall parking lot a little before 4:00 pm. I was greeted by a very loud “CHUP CHUP CHUP!”and again “CHUP CHUP CHUP!”. Where was that coming from? This was not a vocalization that we’ve heard from Orion, but it was definitely a call I had heard from the adults before. It sound like it was coming from everywhere. Sound in that area is very deceiving. It bounces off of the surrounding buildings and makes it very hard to determine where a sound is coming from.

As I was trying to figure it out, I looked up in time to see Beauty come in for a landing on the FCT just below the platform. She landed on a favored “box” shaped structure on the NE corner. After that, I did not hear the loud vocalization again. Was it Beauty making that sound? Probably, but I couldn’t be 100% sure. Before I settled in for the next 3+ hours, I drove all over the downtown area before returning to the FCT. I was unable to find any other falcons. After a little more than 2 hrs, I was joined by Brian H and Joyce. They had just come from the BS location where they spent some time with Pigott. They had not seen Dot.ca. We were soon joined by Kathy O, Jeanne, Larry O and Lynda!

We of course got to talking about all kinds of things, including 9/11 and where Orion might be. We all thought that it was a good possibility that he had started his journey and that we might not see him again here in Rochester. But, we all hoped that he would return for a visit. 🙂 Brian H wondered if he might have met up with other Peregrine juvies that were migrating through the area and decided to follow them. Of course we will never know. I just hope that he is safe and that, one day, we will see him again. <3

From 4 to 7 pm, Beauty moved from the north side to the south side of the FCT.

At 7:00 pm, since it didn’t look like she was going to leave anytime soon, we all decided to head for the Broad St Bridge (BSB) for a look. We spent close to an hour on the bridge, looking for falcons, no luck, and the other birds in the area, especially the Herons. We got our Heron Trifecta, as Larry O calls it, tonight, one juvie Black Crowned Night Heron, one Green Heron and lots of Great Blue Herons, adults and juvies. Lynda was the first to spot a juvie Great Blue Heron sitting on the railing of the bridge just a little west of us. This is the 2nd time that I’ve heard of this happening recently. S/he didn’t stay long, just long enough for us to take a few pictures. That was very cool! Good eyes Lynda! 🙂

I didn’t get a picture of the Green Heron, but here are a few of the Great Blue on the bridge railing and a couple of the young juvie Black Capped Night Heron. He got right down to the business of looking for fish!

So, another evening Falcon Watch ended in the company of good friends and beautiful birds. It certainly doesn’t get much better than that. Now that summer is is coming to an end, many of the Rochester Falcon Watchers will continue to head downtown and they will all keep their eyes to the sky.

On my way home, I checked the FCT one more time and Beauty was no longer there. Joyce and Brian found her on her regular nightly roosting spot on top of the Xerox Bldg on the south side. Good night Beauty! Goodnight Dot.ca and Orion, wherever you are!

By Rochester Falcon watcher MAK

When I stepped out of the house this morning I wondered if the sweater,fleece pullover and gloves were going to keep me warm enough but once I got to walking that question was answered. My outdoor thermometer said 49 degrees fahrenhiet, some 30-40 degrees cooler than what we’ve been seeing around here. Once I got downtown and the sun came up it turned out to be a beautiful morning with sunny blue skies much like 9-11-01. Let’s not EVER forget that day!

So it took me about 7 minutes from stepping off the bus to finding my first falcon. From the Broad St. bridge(BSB) I could see a pefa on the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT) on the 2nd arm tucked in close to the tower. I started my trek over to City Hall to ID it with the thought in the back of my mind that I might get over there and it would be gone. I stopped on State St. as I always do in front of the Rochester Plaza Hotel where the tower comes into view from behind buildings to see that it was gone from the arm and now there was a falcon on the platform railing. It had a dark front and so I got a little excited thinking that it could be Orion.

After getting by the City Hall building that blocks my view of the tower as I walk down Church St. I could see that my instincts were correct-no falcon. As I was checking the rest of the tower and contemplating going up on the Sister Cities Garage I got a text from Donna saying Beauty was at the nest box. So off I went to the Times Square building(TSB).  Once there I found Dot.Ca(DC) under the northeast wing looking very white in the bright morning sun.

I had to go to Falcon Watcher Central to be able to see Beauty up at the nest box. At first I could see one whole side of her but then she moved in closer to the nest box.

Then I couldn’t see DC anymore so I walked up to the middle of the BSB to see if he had just moved back on the ledge. He was gone as far as I could tell and I decided to go down by the front entrance of the Blue Cross Arena(BCA) to watch the Beautyful one at closer range.

Just before 9:00am Beauty left the nest box area so once again I went up to the BSB to have a look around. I found DC on the top ibeam of OCSR at the south corner(one of his favorite spots).

While I was up on the bridge I checked out the river residents and took some pics. When I was done I noticed a bump on the west corner 2nd ibeam  of OCSR. Beauty had joined the mix so I left the bridge to go to Aqueduct Park for a closer encounter with our resident Peregrine pair.

Click the pics for the full version

45 minutes later DC left and I couldn’t see Beauty anymore so I decided to call it a watch. I really was hoping Orion would come for a visit but I do believe he has started the wandering stage of his young life. I have no doubt that he will beat the odds and have a long successful life. I’m grateful for the time spent with him and there’s always video of him to look at when I/we need a fix. Keep smiling everyone! 🙂

Click on the links below for pics and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrINA

http://youtu.be/K4S7ZYY65UQ
http://youtu.be/f6Kc_JHA0_E
http://youtu.be/8qHsH7EIoHI
http://youtu.be/V1XM0VL5VwY

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