By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

As is normal on Monday, I got a very late start tonight.  I arrived downtown just before 7:00 pm.  It was quiet, with hardly any traffic, which was nice.  No festivals, baseball games or any events at all.  Well, except for the gathering at the beautiful, old church behind the Times Square Bldg.  It was overcast and looking like it was going to rain, but it held off while I was on my Watch.  It was cooler than it had been lately.  I checked all the west side locations, including the Kodak Tower and the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the way to the Broad St Bridge.  I spotted a falcon, that I thought was an adult at first, on the railing below the Mercury statue with it’s back to me.  During my 2 hour Watch, the sky changed making for interesting backgrounds for my falcon on Mercury pics.  lol

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The only way to see the front of this falcon was to go down to Aqueduct St, aka the “hole”.  From there I could see that it was a juvie and not an adult.  I cannot be 100% sure, but I do believe that it was Rosetta.  She was being stubborn about showing me her bands, but I saw white a couple of times.

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She was in hyper alert mode, watching everything that moved around her, including a plane that flew overhead.  I decided to stay with her before checking for the other juvies, hoping that she would attempt to hunt.  Before heading back to the Broad St Bridge, where I had a better view of the area, I checked the Times Square Bldg and Widows Walk.  Here is a sure sign that there are no falcons on Widows Walk!  haha!

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I parked on the Broad St Bridge, facing west.  From there I could see Rosetta below Mercury and the surrounding area, just in case she decided to attempt a hunt, which I really hoped she would.  I was lucky to be one of the Watchers that witnessed Orion’s first successful hunt last year.  This year’s juvies may already be hunting on their own, but no one has reported seeing them hunt yet.  Larry O joined me for awhile before he had to head home.  A Green Heron arrived on the river below, which is very low right now, and started to fish for it’s dinner.

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By 8:30, Larry had left and since it was getting dark and Rosetta seemed to be settling in, I decided it was time to check for the other juvies.  I drove all around downtown before heading over to the Frontier Communication Tower.  That’s where I found the other two juvies.  They were playing up near the top of the tower, flying and jumping around.  They were quiet, no vocalization.  Just as I was going to try to get some really bad pics in the low light, first one and then the second one took off, heading east.  I attempted to follow, but by the time I made it to the Andrews St Bridge, they were no where to be found, including Rosetta who was no longer below the Mercury statue.  I have a suspicion that one of the adults may have brought in food and all three juvies went to greet their parent.  Oh, well.  I was very happy to have seen all three tonight.  Every day we see them at this point is a gift, since they could start taking off on their migration at any time.  That will be a very sad and at the same time, happy day.  But until that happens, the Rochester Watchers will be out and about and reporting what we see.

It was just before 9:00 pm and getting dark.  My last stop was the Kodak Tower, where I hoped to see them one last time before I ended my Watch.  I pulled over next to the Kodak parking lot and immediately spotted one juvie on the SE corner of the launch pad.  Another was flying around the top of the tower and landed on the east side of the cupola.  The lights were on and at least two juvies were there to roost for the evening.  It was too dark to tell if there was a 3rd.

I’ll leave you with one more horrible low light picture, which shows the one juvie on the launchpad.  It was time for me to head home.  Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 12th, 2013 at 10:52 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.