By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Mid August in Rochester.  No balmy, warm day for us.  Instead of covering up with 50 million sun screen, I was covering up in fleece.  When I arrived downtown at about 6:00 pm, it was 67 degrees(F) and dropped during my 3 hour Watch.  My usual first stops are the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) and the Kodak Tower.  There were no falcons on the FCT, but I did find Dot.ca on the Kodak Tower on the SE corner of the launch pad.

*

*

*

*

*

I checked the rest of the downtown area and found no other falcons.  It was time to head out to the pedestrian bridge.  Maybe that’s where they were.  Nope, no falcons there either.  Even the Osprey was a no show.  Just me and a few folks on the bridge.  The winds were strong there and ominous dark clouds were moving in from the north.  It was more like fall than the hottest month of the year.

*

*

*

*

*

Dot.ca was still up on the Kodak Tower.  I scanned the downtown area, checking for falcon specks.  No specks, but I did see two juvies soaring over the Chase Tower and talon tagging and chasing each other.  This is a picture I took zoomed out to the max from where I stood on the pedestrian bridge.

*

*

*

*

*

So, I had three of the 5 Rochester Falcons, Dot.ca and two Juvies.  The two juvies finally split up.  One continued to soar on the winds over downtown and the other flew over to the FCT where it landed on the top arm.  It then flew to the City Place Bldg onto one of the white structures on the NW corner.  There must have been some leftover food there, because this juvie was enjoying a snack.

I drove over to City Place, but by the time I got over there, the juvie was gone.  For the next hour or so, I cruised all over the downtown area, catching glimpses of falcons flying here and there.  They were really enjoying the winds.  From the Andrews St Bridge, I heard a juvie loudly vocalizing above.  I looked up in time to see a juvie fly up to an adult.  At first I thought there was going to be a food exchange, but the adult did not have any food.  So the juvie flew off towards the west, still loudly calling.  The adult circled above, higher and higher, definitely in hunt mode.

*

*

*

*

*

From the Broad St Bridge, I saw a falcon flying around carrying small prey.  It was starting to get dark, and I couldn’t tell if it was an adult or juvie.  It flew towards Xerox and then turned back and flew towards the FCT.  Was this an adult looking for a juvie to feed?  I really have no idea.

I had planned on leaving at 8 pm, but as usual, time got away from me.  lol  Because I could see no falcons, I decided to check out downtown one more time.  By 8:30 pm, I was really losing light.  I stopped on the Broad St Bridge facing east, looking towards Xerox/Midtown/B&L.  The gulls were up and flying over the river.  Lots of them.  I heard them vocalizing to the south and I looked up in time to see that there was a falcon flying with them.  The falcon did a quick turn and snatched one of the birds it was flying with.  I only saw gulls, no pigeons, and I really do believe this falcon grabbed a gull.  I quickly grabbed my binocs, it was way too dark to take any pics and I really wanted to see what was going on.

The falcon held on tight, while the large bird struggled to get free.  They headed east towards B&L, losing altitude.  I lost them behind B&L.  Quickly jumping into my car, I drove over to the east side of B&L and searched for close to a 1/2 hour.  I even parked in different spots to listen and checked all the roof lines, even the lower ones.  I did see a juvie flying over B&L touching down and taking off like it was looking for something.  Needless to say, I had no luck finding the falcon or the gull or the pigeon.  I do have to wonder if a pigeon was flying with the gulls and that’s what the falcon got.  I had really hoped to find the falcon to verify what it caught.  I even question, whether it was a juvie that grabbed a gull.  It wasn’t the type of hunting that we usually saw Beauty and Dot.ca do.  Was the juvie I saw afterwards looking for a lost meal?  I truly have no idea.  If it had been lighter, I could have snapped a couple pics and maybe solved the mystery.

It was dark and time for me to head home.  At 9:00 pm, I did drive over to Kodak for a quick look and could not see any obvious bumps up there.  Well, that was an interesting Watch.  Goodnight Everyone!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 13th, 2013 at 11:16 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.