By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It was a gorgeous afternoon.  Temps in the low 70’s (F) and fluffy clouds and sunshine.  I arrived downtown just before 4:00 pm, and I really hoped I would see at least one of the juvies.  It had been close to two days since I had seen one.  My first stop was the Kodak Tower, where I found Beauty on the SE corner of the playpen.  I parked in front of Frontier Field to get a better view.  At first Beauty had her back to me.  She turned around looking south.  Then a smaller falcon took off from the east side, heading south in a really big hurry.  Beauty followed.  I believe the 2nd falcon was DC.  I tried to follow them, but I was caught at a light.  By the time I arrived on the Broad St Bridge (BSB), there were no falcons in sight.

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I decided to check out the BS location.  It had been awhile since I had seen Pigott.  I was very happy to find her on the south side vent at the west end.  She was very alert and following the movement of the birds flying by.  It wasn’t long before she spread her wings and took off heading SW.  Since I lost sight of her, I decided to head back downtown.  I really wanted to find a juvie.

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I ended up on the pedestrian bridge, watching the critters that call the gorge home.  Dot.ca returned to the Kodak Tower, on the SE corner of the 17th Floor.  He didn’t stay very long.  The next time I looked, he was gone.  I also saw a falcon soaring over downtown Rochester, starting at Midtown and flying behind the OCSR building.

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3 hours after I started my Watch, I decided to head downtown to look for falcons.  No such luck.  I decided to park on the Broad St Bridge and stay put.  At 7:30 pm, Dan found me and he joined me on the evening Falcon Watch. Joyce also joined us after finding Dot.ca on the large disk on the side of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  She thought she had heard a juvie vocalizing, but could not find it.  DC took off and she joined us on the BSB.  It was 7:40 pm when I spotted Dot.ca on the top IBeam of the OCSR, south side.  Finally a falcon to Watch.  Dan was happy and went to his car to get his chair.  lol  Dan spotted a falcon flying over the Raddison.  To both of us it looked like a juvie.  It flew behind the Raddison and did not come back out.  DC was still on the OCSR and Joyce was yelling from the other side of the street that there was a falcon under the SE wing on the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  It was Beauty.  So, with DC still on OCSR, where was the 3rd falcon we had seen flying?

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First Dot.ca took off and appeared to fly up into the elevator shaft.  Beauty took off and flew over us heading east towards Xerox.  Then a third falcon was flying around the OCSR.  It was the juvie and s/he was vocalizing loudly.  Oh, I do love that sound.  The juvie flew up to the NE ledge just above the nest box on the TSB and another falcon landed on the well wall just north of the nest box.  Joyce and I moved closer to get a better look.  We determined it had to be a male on the ledge and definitely a juvie.  Had to be Baron!  At first we thought the large falcon was Beauty, but Joyce’s pictures showed it was definitely a juvie.  Woohoo!   Two juvies!  So we had Baron and either Rosetta or Voyager.  We never did get a look at either of their bands.

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We were all so happy to see them.

Our evening Watch ended with yet another happy surprise.  Both Baron and his sister took off and headed downtown (east).  I stayed on the BSB and Joyce drove over to try to find them from the east side.  She tweeted that there were three falcons flying over HSBC.  I looked up in time to see all three blast over the Xerox Bldg. and B&L.  For about 15 minutes (8:25 -8:40 pm) Joyce and I (Dan had to leave) were thrilled to see all Three juvies talon tagging and chasing each other, vocalizing loudly.  It was so good to see them home again.  I hope they stay a little longer before heading out on their migration.  I’m really going to miss them.  It was 3 hrs and 40 minutes into my Watch before I saw a juvie, but it was so well worth it.  I ended my Watch at 8:50 pm, checking the Kodak Tower on my way home.  It was too dark to see if there were any falcons up there.

I just read a comment under the tweet section in the forum posted by Christiane a Rfalconcam Watcher.  She zoomed in on one of the pictures taken by the nest box cameras and believes she saw red.  Red/yellow is Voyager, so maybe she was the female on the well wall.  Thanks Christiane and thank Ei for letting us know when she left.  Your help is much appreciated.

Oh, and guess what?  Even though it was getting dark, I decided to try getting a video of their play.  It’s not the greatest, but here it is.  Enjoy and goodnight all!

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK TO VIEW MY YOUTUBE VIDEO

http://youtu.be/r5wz2fPsxmA

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 15th, 2013 at 11:54 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.