By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I got a late start on my watch today.  There were dark clouds heading towards downtown Rochester with some thunder and lightning too.  So I stayed home until it passed.  When I arrived downtown at 6:00 pm, the roads around Kodak Office were filled with Red Wing fans on their way to tonight’s game.  I made my rounds, but didn’t find a falcon until close to 6:30 pm.  Finally a falcon and it was Beauty preening on the Widows Walk which is next to the Times Square Bldg where the nest box is located.

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I kept hearing a juvie’s cry from overhead, and Beauty kept looking straight up, but I could not see the juvie.  Larry O arrived just before Beauty stooped off of the Widows Walk and over the Civic Center Parking Garage (6:50 pm)

After driving around a bit, I found Beauty on the 3rd arm down on the jail communication tower.  She was hunched over, checking out the birds flying below her, definitely in hunt mode.  Larry reported that there was a falcon on the southeast corner of the Kodak Tower.  I could see that bird and Beauty from where I was parked.  Beauty took off heading south over Cornhill, so I drove over to Kodak to get a closer look at the falcon there.  It was facing the building, but I am pretty sure that it was Dot.ca.

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While I was at Kodak, Larry tweeted at 7:05 pm that there was a falcon flying over the B&L building attempting to land on the spire, which is a very long point on top of the building.  Dot.ca took off at 7:10 pm and headed south towards downtown.  So did I.

I arrived on the Broad St Bridge, just in time to see two juvies flying over the river towards the Andrews St apartments.  I called to Larry who was at the east end of the bridge with his dog Harold and pointed to the two falcons.  We watched the two juvies, a male and female (definite size difference) talon tag and chase each other, mostly above the Xerox Tower and B&L.  They were tearing up the sky or as my friend Brian H says, they were sky dancing.  🙂

I had time to download one of my videos to YouTube from this evening, showing the two juvies flying high.  Just click on the following link.  Enjoy!

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http://youtu.be/7qqAAUtLLRQ

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Be sure to click on the pictures to see the full version.

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While the juvies were flying above Xerox, Dot.ca came in carrying food from the east.  He flew over us and landed on the top IBeam of the OCSR.  (7:28 pm) The juvies never stopped flying while Dot.ca prepped the pray.

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The young falcons are like most young children, tireless.  Every now and then one would land, but was soon back to flying.  The female kept up with her brother, who was more agile.  It was a joy to see this again before they left for good.

At 7:34 pm, Dot.ca took off with the prey and headed towards Xerox, where one of the juvies flew up to him and went talons up to grab the offered meal.  It was a successful food exchange.  We believe that the male got the food and that he landed on top of Xerox with it.  The female flew with Dot.ca for awhile before they both went behind the OCSR heading west.  I went looking for them, but did not find them.

Larry had to leave, so I drove around one last time and found a falcon eating on the west side of B&L.  It was too dark for me to be able to tell if it was an adult or juvie.  After finishing the meal, this falcon took off and flew around and over the Xerox Tower before stooping down towards the river heading west towards Cornhill.

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I ended my watch at 8:20 pm.  It was so good to see these juvies.  It has been awhile since we saw one of the females.  Wish we could have ID’d them.  I truly hope they are here tomorrow, so other watchers will be able to see them.  I’ll leave you with some pictures from my evening watch.  Lots of dark clouds, wind and a bit of rain.  Goodnight everyone!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2014 at 11:02 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.