Fledge watch 7-31-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Today started out with mostly clear blue skies calm conditions and a temperature of 56 (F) 13 (C).
Arriving downtown around 5:35am it took me 20 minutes to find my first falcon and it was Beauty near the northeast corner of HSBC.
She was only there a minute or so before she stretched out her gorgeous wings and took flight going north and she was in a blurry hurry.
It would be a half hour before I would find another falcon. While I was stopped at City Hall I took a look over to Kodak Office (KO) and spotted a PEFA on the launchpad. I drove down to Mill St. and was able to see yellow on the right leg band meaning it was Baron I had found.
He was walking back and forth toward the back of the ledge coming in and out of view at first, but then he parked it on the northeast corner. Suddenly a larger fledgling came flying in that Baron had been watching above him-one of Barons sisters, and she coaxed him off to play with her. They talon tagged around the tower and came squawking over the apartments near where I was parked then went back to KO across the front of the south side.
Baron circled the building and landed briefly on the southeast rocket then resumed the fun and games. They disappeared on the west side where I couldn’t see them.
I checked every side of KO but didn’t see any falcons, after searching downtown and coming up empty I opted for going to Brighton but there were no PEFAs there either. Upon returning to downtown as I was driving toward Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) on Plymouth Ave. I spotted a falcon on the top arm of FCT. As I pulled over on Church St. I had a small window of time to get pics and ID it. I reported Beauty but it was in fact Dot.Ca (DC).
DC returned landing on the 2nd arm west side of FCT and as he did I could hear a juvie whining but I never did find it. DC kept looking down and I don’t know if he was watching a fledgling or a prey bird.
DC stayed with me for about 20 minutes then he stooped down to the north and never came back into view. That would be the last glimpse of a Peregrine for me today.
I searched for the next 20 minutes and came up falconless so I ended my watch at 8:45am. I’m seeing less and less of our fledglings as the days pass and soon they will leave on their life journey. I saw Beauty,DC,Baron and one of the girls on watch to send me on my way smiling even tho I would have liked seeing all 3 juvies. 🙂
Click on the links below to view a couple videos
