By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was 72 (F)  22 (C) when I started out this morning at 5:30am and when I quit for the day at noon it was 85 (F)  29(C). Humidity was high with almost no breeze and wall to wall sunshine!

It took me 20 minutes to find a falcon this morning which was weird to me since there are 5 of them. The girls Rosetta and Voyager eluded me for much of the watch but Baron would show up at every turn. I found Dot.Ca (DC)on the Kodak Office tower (KO) launchpad northeast corner. As I drove down Platt St. in the High Falls area to get as close as I could to ID the KO bird, I spotted Dan sitting down on the east end of the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge. I drove around to that side of the river and joined him. he told me he had seen all 3 juvies playing talon tag near the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). I spotted Beauty on the northeast corner of HSBC soon after I arrived.

Click on my pics to see the full version

Meanwhile DC went up to the cupola of KO and soon after Beauty flew to the jail tower.

From  this distance it can be tricky to tell who’s who, but with a veteran watcher like Dan it can be done.  We saw Beauty stoop on something and then noticed 2 juvies playing talon tagging near FCT. DC flew south and turned it into a long stoop near the Times Square building then to the north corner top ibeam OCSR before flying off and disappearing. We had all 3 juvies talon tagging at one point near the TSB while an adult landed on the top arm north side of FCT. Larry joined us as we could see 2 juvies under the northeast wing.

In the next half hour we witnessed a female juvie stoop with great speed for a fledgling after a pigeon by the Andrews Place apartments. And we had a very long flight by Baron and one of his sisters playing talon tag all over the downtown area. DC flew off FCT and 2 juvies appeared on Widows Walk (WW).

Around 7:15am Larry and Dan left so I decided to go downtown to be closer to our fabulous falcon family but before I left I took pics of every direction to give you an idea of what we see from the pedestrian bridge. Check out my photo album to see them. Upon my arrival in the hole I found Baron on the north side railing of WW and DC on the top ibeam south corner of OCSR.

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I would do a lot of driving around our fair city today looking for our elusive girls and busy Baron. DebbieH joined me around 7:40am as Baron flew above us headed toward FCT. After Deb left for work I went to the Andrews St. Bridge (ASB) and found DC on the north corner of OCSR top ibeam and a juvie on the 2nd ibeam west corner as another juvie flew past it and behind Crossroads. For the next hour juvies would appear and disappear in various spots and around 8:45am I found 2 of them on the base of Mercury

One of them was Rosetta and they touched beaks a few times melting my heart in so doing. This family really gets along very well and we humans could learn from them. After they left Mercury I saw Beauty on WW  just before she took off to the north.

I next found Baron on the apparatus on the lower roof of Crossroads as it was starting to get warm I fully expected to see our PEFA family to be hanging out on the north side of buildings in the shade. They were surprisingly active considering the weather.

I made my way to City Hall where I was right below the FCT and could see Baron next to the large sattelite dish,Beauty under the paltform and another juvie moving around under the platform.

I am still adjusting to find falcons in the FCT inner structure so I had some trouble finding them when they were in there but htere wad=s no problem hearing them when they squawk.  Around 10:30am it was sleepy time as I caught PEFAs with their eyes closed.

Many of the city hall workers stopped to talk about the falcons-they are very aware of them and showed great enthusiasm as I said we had 3 fledglings this year. I decided since I was having such trouble locating our fine feathered friends from the ground that I would go up on the Sister Cities ramp garage. From there I could see a more level view of FCT and I could also see the north side of the downtown buildings. I could see a fledgling on the east side of the platform and Baron on the top arm of FCT.

DC flew in from the south (behind me ) right over my head to the south side rail and as he arrived I heard a juvie crying out but couldn’t locate it. Baron left the arm and then I saw a wing pop up from the east side of the platform. DC then disappeared inside the structure.

I came down from the garage as Joyce arrived and was seeing juvies on the platform from Montgomery Alley next to Hochstein School of Music. I found DC and the 2 juvies before handing the watch over to Joyce thus ending my watch just before noon.

It was a busy morning watch that took me from one end of the territory to the other and lots in between but I came out of it smiling yet again! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a photo album and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiUs

http://youtu.be/a-NmVTdVo_I
http://youtu.be/2sB69fhlVS0
http://youtu.be/6nXyX-KxJqc
http://youtu.be/Yul8iYT2jOk
http://youtu.be/m8_ShJl6t2k

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 16th, 2013 at 8:41 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.