By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Joyce and I took a trip to Toronto yesterday for the banding of Quest and Kendals 3 eyases. Lisa,Dana and Carol rode with Kathy, so there was a good Rochester turn out for the affair.

After hearing of Sarah, one of the fledglings at the Burlington Bridge site,having fledged but was missing since Thursday nite we made a point of stopping there first. Luckily, we saw all 4 fledglings and all was right with the falcon world there. They have  3 girls and a boy-Isabella was the last one to fledge yesterday. Sarah,Isabella,Hadfield and Lancaster

Isabella all alone in the nest box

Onward to Harlequin for the banding after a quick stop at Burlington for we would be going there on our way home for an evening fledge watch. The weather wasn’t the best-overcast, a little chilly for this time of year and a misty to very light rain on and off all day. This year instead of the window washer rig to extract the eyases just one guy repelled down to the nest box from the roof.

Quest was by herself to defend her nest site against the big bad man as her mate Kendal, like last year stayed away until after the kids were put back following getting their leg bands. Our own Rochester born Quest was quite brave making lots of noise as well as swooping back and forth and landing on the ledge to either side of the intruder at her nest.

Click on my pics for the full version

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After the eyases were lowered we went up into the Harlequin building across the street from the nest building for the banding festivities. It was determined that Quest and Kendal had 3 girls and all were quite feisty!

<Luna <Carina <Kimani

After they got their new bling they were taken back across the street and we watched as the eyases were put back into their nest box safe and sound. Quest finally got to check on the kids after the intruder left with his ropes and broom.

Once she was sure the kids were ok she flew off to yell at Kendal who finally showed up. They ended up on the roof of the Harlequin building.

<Kendal

Photographer and good friend Ann Brokelman took us to Rosetta Mclean Gardens where the late great Big Frank did his raptor counts after the banding. Patty Gale and 2 other friends of Franks-Cory and Carol also joined us there. We saw 3 screech owls and their mom, baby racoons in a tree cavity, a few black squirrels and many birds and flowers. It’s a grand park right next to the shore of Lake Ontario and I can see why Frank loved it so much there.

We all had a grand time at the park. Patty joined us to check on Linn and Reuben at the Yellow Pages site after we left Rosetta. There wasn’t much going on there so we didn’t stay long. It was close to rush hour in Toronto and if we would stand any chance of making a fledge watch at Burlington we had to get going.

It took 2 hours but we made it and soon after we arrived Sarah did some flying and wore herself out causing her to keep losing altitude and come to the ground. At first we thought she had landed on the bridge road but after walking to the other side Sue McCreadie, one of CPFs regular watchers for the site, spotted Sarah under the bridge. And she didn’t appear to be injured-PHEW! Sues’ husband, Bill came with a blanket,placed it over Sarah and took her to be placed in a carrier until Tracy Simpson could get there to check her out and release her.

Her 3 siblings>

Tracy released Sarah into the nest box after getting bitten and gouged (obviously Sarah was just fine and feisty) and with all fledglings accounted for Joyce and I left for the states and home around 9:30pm.

It was a fun filled day with friends and falcons but it was especially nice to see The Rosetta Mclean Park where Big Frank spent so much time while he was here on earth.  🙂

Check out the links below for many more pics of the day and 3 videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiGg

http://youtu.be/TV2d01iIQII
http://youtu.be/pB7u5flwWqI
http://youtu.be/gNig9E3CfEU

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 8th, 2013 at 5:02 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.