By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

A storm was approaching Rochester (NY) this afternoon.  They were calling for thunder, lightning, heavy rain, high winds and hail.  A possible tornado was even mentioned in the weather report.  It was raining when I left work and raining when I arrived downtown at about 3:50 pm.  Joyce was already on the fledge watch and had spotted Beauty and three of the juvies with her at the Frontier Communication Tower.  This was the first time we have seen them there.  I stopped on Plymouth where I could see one juvie on the red platform of the tower and one on top of the City Place Bldg.  Soon after I arrived, two of the young falcons took off heading south towards the Times Square Bldg.  I followed.

By the time I arrived at Broad St, I could see that there was one juvie on the railing of the Widow’s Walk (WW) building.  I parked on the Broad St Bridge.  From there, I could see no falcons, so I headed down to Aqueduct St. (aka “the hole”).  From there I could see the juvie on WW.  As the ominous, dark clouds approached, another juvenile falcon flew in and landed on the column above the nest box on the Times Square Bldg (TSB).  That when the winds picked up and the thunder and lightning started.  Then it poured!  Joyce joined me in the hole and we stayed in our cars, waiting out the storm.

While it rained, a third juvie flew in and landed on top of the Wilder Bldg.  Through the torrential rain, I could just barely see this juvie make its’ way down the length of roof to the south west corner.  There was a lot of flapping by this bird and the two on the TSB.  Finally, the sky began to brighten as the storm passed.  The clouds parted and a bit of sun showed through.  We were able to get out of our cars and enjoy the remainder of our watch.

Larry O joined us for a short while and then Kathy O arrived.  She, Joyce and I stayed until after 9:00 pm.

After the rain stopped, Beauty brought food to the base of the Mercury statue, where all four juvies landed and shared a large meal of pigeon.  There was no fighting or tug-o-wars.  Just four siblings sharing dinner.  After each had their fill, they took off one by one.  Tesh and Mercury were our high flyers.  They were all over downtown flying above the tall buildings there, especially Xerox, B&L and the Chase Lincoln Tower.  This is what I truly love to watch.  Young falcons flying together and chasing each other.  I love a good game of talon tag!  🙂

In the meantime, Nettie and Nor’easter flew around closer to the Times Square Bldg, chasing Beauty here and there.  lol  After they both settled on the TSB, Beauty went to the base of the Mercury statue and ate her share of what was left from the juvies earlier meal.

Dot.ca was there too, adding his support and watching over his young ones.  For much of the evening, Beauty and Dot.ca were both on the top IBeam of OCSR, just a few feet apart.

At the end of our watch, we could account for all six Rochester Falcons.  Tesh and Nettie were up on the southwest and northeast wing ledges on the TSB.  Both Nor’easter and Mercury were tucked in on the left side of the outside of the nest box.  What falcon fans are calling the “boy cave”.  Beauty had just left the TSB and flew towards OCSR and we had seen Dot.ca fly up into the OCSR elevator shaft a little earlier.

My watch lasted from 3:50 to 9:10 pm.  After the storm passed, it turned out to be a beautiful evening.  Sorry no pics tonight.  I just don’t have enough time to download them.  But, I did want to let you all know what happened tonight.  Goodnight everyone!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2014 at 10:53 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.