By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

49 (F) degrees when I walked out the house this morning! That’s 9 (C) and outrageous for August around here. On the up side the sun shone bright with blue skies and it warmed up nicely.

I’m afraid our juvenile Peregrine Falcons are wandering but hopefully not for good yet. Last nights watchers didn’t see any and I didn’t this morning either-maybe just a day trip and they’ll be back to grace us with their presence.

I found Dot.Ca (DC) on the northeast corner of the Kodak Office launchpad at 6am to begin my watch. In the 20 minutes or so I observed him he mainly was looking at something to the north, he then walked back and forth a couple times before launching himself off into an immediate stoop to the north. I lost sight of him near Sahlen’s Stadium as he vanished behind buildings.

Remember to click on my pics for the full version

When he didn’t come back I left Mill St. and checked everything on my way to the pedestrian bridge at High Falls on the east side where I could see Dan. When I got there I asked if he had seen DC stoop but he said after watching him for 20 minutes he missed it as he turned away for a minute. That’s how it goes a lot of the time-you can keep your eyes on them for hours and the second you look away POOF! they’re gone. After 15 minutes passed Dan noticed a falcon on the Frontier Communications Tower (FCT) platform railing north side. I took a couple pics and after checking them with the zoom fully engaged determined that it looked like an adult. Dan decided it was time to leave just before 7am so I drove over to City Hall straight away and found it was Beauty on FCT.

I only spent 10 minutes with her when she flew off in no big hurry to the southeast. I wondered if she was looking for her kids or if she knows where they are hanging out of late.

I went to the Broad St. bridge and looked around for 15 minutes and then I saw a falcon on the top arm of FCT. I whipped over to Plymouth Ave. where I could see the front and determined it was the Beautyful one. This time I only spent 2 or 3 minutes with her before she flew off to the north in a big hurry.

Click them for full version

After searching to the north up Lake Ave. to Driving Park and back downtown with no sightings I went over to Brighton and saw no falcons there either. As I was stopped on the side of the service road on the west side I had a woman pull up next to me and ask if I was looking at the bird.  I said yes but before I could say anything else she told me every morning at 5:30am that bird flies down to the ground over there and eats berries and she repeated every day and then she pulled away.  I didn’t know Pigott liked berries! lol

I never did see another falcon as I searched all over the downtown area and ended up at High Falls for the duration of my watch. I saw the gorge Osprey in the tree that sits in the middle of the river on the north side of the pedestrian bridge. It was looking to catch a fish and it made a valiant attempt as it dove to the water and came up empty taloned. It flew downriver to a concrete structure that protrudes up out of the river, landed for a second then took off to the north where I lost sight of it behind the trees.

I did a 360 degree scan of the sky and buildings and saw no falcons and then Joe (aka Viper) our young watcher walked up to me and said hi. He was with his mom,sister,grandmother and a friend. We chatted for a few minutes and then they had to leave. I ended my watch at 10:20am and left as well. I wish I had seen the juvies but I was happy to see Beauty and DC who always bring a smile to my face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view a couple videos from my watch

http://youtu.be/rrQLmXAwC0s
http://youtu.be/dsqcg5UPe7Y

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 15th, 2013 at 4:25 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.