I had been downtown since 11:00 am, watching Mariah on Midtown Plaza. Dawn  joined me and we watched Mariah fly around Midtown to the north side. I thought she landed there, but when we checked, she was gone.

It was going on 1:00 pm, so we decided to drive over to the Andrew St. Bridge to try to find Mariah. A quick look at the east end of the pedestrian bridge showed that others had come out to watch Falcons. Every one of them had their binoculars pointed at the sky above. A quick look showed two raptors high above. One was Mariah and one was (we believe) a Red-Shouldered Hawk. Mariah was just soaring with the hawk. I never saw any aggression. Strange. They both flew off towards the east.

Dawn and I joined Larry O, Dan S, Brian H, Suzanne, Don, Jeanne, Lynda and Carol (another Carol) on the bridge. During the next hour or so, we kept seeing Mariah on the NE corner of Midtown. At one point, she flew off and stooped on what appeared to be a Crow, but we can’t be 100% sure. We were quite a distance away.

Around 3:30 pm, I left Larry O, Brian H, Kathy O, Dawn & Joyce on the bridge.
On my way home, I decided to take one more trip around downtown. Just as I arrived at Midtown, my phone rang. I heard Kathy O tell me in an excited voice that there were TWO Falcons flying around the Kodak Tower and that there was no aggression at all between them.

I tried to get back to the tower ASAP, but I caught every red light. Talk about
frustrating! By the time I got there, they were gone. I drove back over to the
east end of the bridge. Everyone there was talking excitedly about seeing Mariah and a Tiercel flying around the tower and I missed it!

Larry left and I stayed for awhile longer. I’m really glad I did.

Two Falcons came flying in from the south. Mariah in the lead the Tiercel
behind her. They both flew back to the Kodak Tower and around it. I quickly jumped in my car and drove over to the KTower.

Mariah had landed on the SE corner of the launchpad and the Tiercel was doing all kinds of fancy flying in front her. I really expected them to mate or
copulate, but it never happened.

There was glorious ee-chupping filling the air!

The Tiercel flew by Mariah, heading north and Mariah was off in a flash. They
both did a U-turn, heading back towards me. Both Mariah and the Tiercel flew over me, low, and at a great rate of speed. I just watched and enjoyed the show.

They took off heading south.

I joined the remaining Watchers and we waited to see if the Falcons would
return. When they didn’t, I said my goodbyes around 4:30 pm.

Kathy O called to tell me that both Mariah and the Tiercel returned to the Kodak Tower after I left.

It was a wonderful day for Watching Falcons and it gives me hope that all will be well with Mariah.

Carol P.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 at 2:41 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.