Fledge watch 8-2-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
This morning the weather was outstanding with clear and calm conditions and a temperature of 56 (F) 13 (C) to start.
Our young fledglings must have felt the same way for they were scarce this morning. I saw only 1 juvie and Beauty on my 3 1/2 hour watch. No worries tho because watcher LarryO saw all 3 juvies including some talon tagging in the High Falls gorge!
I started out searching the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) first, then I moved on to the Kodak Office with no sightings. I then worked my way back to the south checking the Times Square and Broad St. Bridge (BSB) areas-still no PEFAs. I finally saw a Beautyful sight on the northwest corner of HSBC.
Beauty was looking for a pigeon breakfast but they weren’t willing to come out and play while we were there. She did some stretching and then flew northwest at 6am.
As I made my way around downtown looking for falcons I came across a worker on the Crossroads building.
It would take me 25 minutes to find another falcon -as I was looking around from the BSB I spotted one on the bottom arm west side of the jail tower. I drove to Troup St. for closer viewing and was able to ID it as a juvie. I think maybe Baron because it looked small to me. He was catching a few winks while perched there for the next 15 minutes when he took flight heading west.
I had gotten a tweet from Larry saying there were fledglings flying in the High Falls gorge-unfortunately I didn’t get there in time to see them. Larry said they flew toward Frontier Park and then he lost them. I did take a few pics while on the Pont de Rennes pedestrian bridge-it’s almost impossible not to!
Click pics to see full version
We both drove over there to check it out but no falcons were around. Larry left for work and I left for Brighton. On the way, there were Jehovahs Witnesses making there way into the Blue Cross Arena. This is their 3rd event this summer and should be the last for this year as they will be in our fair city thru Sunday.
I got to the Brighton site to find that Pigott wasn’t home so I drove back downtown around 7:30am. I searched everywhere and as I arrived at High Falls once again I got a message from watcher DebbieH saying she had a juvie on the FCT. Thanks for the heads up Deb! I whipped over and found the youngster on the northwest corner of the platform railing.
I barely had time for a pic when it flew off in a hurry to the south. As I followed behind trying to find where it went I stumbled across Beauty on a north side beam of the jail tower. While I was pulled over on Troup St. in front of the Catholic Family Center at School Alley an unmarked black SUV drove by slow and then backed up stopping by me. It was a detective who wanted to know what I was doing with my camera pointing at the jail. I told him I was taking pictures of a Peregrine Falcon and with a puzzled look on his face he said “oh, I thought you were planning a jail break for one of your friends”. I smiled and then he took off. lol
I left the Beautyful one to look for her brood as she preened, taking note of her full crop . I haven’t seen her with a full crop too much since her kids have grown up. It’s been a busy time for her and Dot.Ca feeding and teaching the gang all the skills they will need to survive in the big bad world. Soon (if it hasn’t already happened) the fledglings will start making their own kills and then it will only be a matter of time before they leave the territory. Until then I’m going to enjoy them as much as possible-at least as long as they show themselves! I ended my watch at 9am smiling despite only having seen 1 juvie and Beauty-and why not, that’s more than most people get to see! 🙂
I have provided links for 2 videos below-just click and view
http://youtu.be/7qUrMLHe-ok
http://youtu.be/kjH6AxmPMQU
