By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The starting temperature today for my fledge watch was 60 (F) 16 (C) with partly cloudy skies and a gentle breeze.

While I was stopped at the off ramp from 490 and Plymouth Ave. I could see 2 falcons on the east side of the platform. When I drove over to the City Hall parking lot one of them had moved over to the north side. It then walked back over by its sibling who looked to be eating something and a blurry flurry ensued. 5 minutes later they both flew off to the south and I quickly lost sight of them.

Make sure to click on my pics for the full version

I left the parking lot and when Widows Walk came into view I spotted 2 juvies on the lower ledge west side.

I went to Broad St. near Fitzhugh St. to park and share space with these 2 fabulous falcons. I didn’t get a chance to ID the other as it flew off after a crow right after I stopped the car. I was able to ID the one on the corner as Baron and at 6:04am he flew off to the south.

<Click it        Baron says hi>

I drove to the Broad St. bridge (BSB) and found a juvie on the northeast corner of the Thomson Reuters building. It flew off to the west out of view. A couple minutes I noticed movement down by the foot of Mercury. It was a Baron trying to get his footing on the wing that is attached to the ankle of Mercury. This is a first for me-these juvies will try perching on anything!

He  soon figured out that it wasn’t a good idea and flew off to Widows Walk landing on the east side railing with his back to me.  I happened to notice the moon above Times Square looking like it was coming out of one of the wings-kinda cool!  5 minutes later Baron flew south out of my view from in the hole next to He’s Chinese.

I couldn’t find any PEFAs so I drove to Brighton to look for Pigott-she wasn’t there so I returned to downtown. As I drove down Exchange Blvd. I spotted a juvie under the northeast wing so I pulled over in front of the Blue Cross Arena. Then I spotted a second pair of wings behind it so there were two up there.

I went back to the hole as Larry tweeted from the BSB with Dan that there was two and one of them flew over to the southeast wing ledge. The juvie under the northeast wing was Voyager and she took it to the back of the ledge out of view.

<SE wing juvie  Voyager>

At 7:30am the southeast wing bird flew south-stooping on something as reported by Larry and 8 minutes later Voyager flew south as well.

Click it to see Voyager

Larry tweeted that there was a juvie on the Thomson Reuters roof and suggested I come up and ID it. It had its back to me so I couldn’t see a leg band but after seeing its malar stripe on my computer I’m convinced it was Baron. I spotted Voyager up on Mercurys head. Another new perch for me to witness a falcon on.

<Voyager   Baron>

At 8am Baron left and so did Larry. Voyager remained on Mercurys head for another half hour before flying west out of my field of vision.

<click it> 

I checked all of downtown but never saw another falcon so I ended my watch at 8:45am. This would be the first watch in a long time that I saw no adults and I don’t believe I saw Rosetta either. That’s ok because Voyager and Baron gave me more than enough reason to smile!

I won’t be doing a morning watch tomorrow (Sunday)

Click on the links below to view a photo album and 3 videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqiY-

http://youtu.be/Ufy_3ZmSLU4
http://youtu.be/cEGDzbQkFGE
http://youtu.be/tTQGge0J4ZE

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 27th, 2013 at 1:33 PM and is filed under Fledge Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.