Fledge watch 8-6-13
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Todays starting temp was 54 (F) 12 (C) with clear conditions
Arriving at the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) at 5:40am I could see no falcons, so my next stop was Kodak Office (KO). As I pulled over on Mill St. and looked up at the top of KO I could see 2 juvies circling and playing talon tag in the semi-darkness. One of them landed on the east side of the cupola and flew off-repeating this 4 times before staying put. I think the other juvie landed on the west side(side I couldn’t see) of the launchpad.
In the next 15 minutes the cupola juvie walked to the southwest corner and then back around to the northeast corner and then flew to FCT. I checked all sides of KO but could not find the other fledgling.
I drove over to City Hall to check out the fledgling that had landed on the east side platform railing. It had its back to me so there was no way to get a bead on its leg band to ID it.
I left it to take a ride around downtown to see if I could find any other falcons but I came up empty handed and when I returned to FCT that juvie was gone. I took another ride around and ended up at the Pont De Rennes pedestrian bridge at 6:45am where Larry was on watch. There was a juvie back on the FCT railing east side and I spotted one on the Gorsline building which is next to the High Falls.
15 minutes later both juvies were gone without us seeing them leave so we had no idea what direction they flew. Larry left at 7am and right after that as I was scanning the northern sky with my binocs I came across 3 falcons playing talon tag over near Sahlen’s Stadium-home of the Rochester Rhinos soccer team. There was a building in between 2 sets of field lights that they kept flying behind making me lose sight of them. Finally they didn’t come back out from behind it-I waited and watched all around for a few minutes and then decided to go to the Brighton Site (BS).
I made my way past all the places our falcons like to hang out but didn’t find any until I started down Plymouth Ave. toward Cornhill. Just as I was crossing the overpass for 490 I looked at the jail tower and spotted a falcon. I made a quick left onto Troup St. and had just enough time to snap off a couple pics before it flew southeast into the sun causing me to lose track of it. It was one of our fledglings.
I continued on to BS where I promptly found Pigott around 7:30am on the east end of the south side vent. She was preening her lovely feathers and napping on and off.
After I left Miss Pigott I checked downtown but never saw another falcon thus ending my watch at 8:30am. It was a pretty uneventful watch and I didn’t see either Beauty or Dot.Ca but I still left smiling for having seen all 3 juvies flying and Pigott whom I hadn’t seen in a number of days. 🙂
I have provided links below for you to view 2 videos
August 7th, 2013 at 6:52 PM
I always say a quiet day is a good day! Thanks for your photos and commentary MAK! This seems to be a good group!