By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

The weather was perfect yesterday for a road trip and falcon watch-warm, sunny blue skies with just a few clouds and a slight breeze

Make sure to click on my pics to see the full version

Joyce had asked me where I would like to go on a road trip-I said how about the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge since the fall migration has begun. Then I asked if we could go check on Pigott in downtown Syracuse, NY which is not too much farther east. That’s what we did and what a day we had! The refuge was chocked full of juvenile Osprey and Bald Eagles-they clearly outnumbered the adults. Our first sighting was an Osprey in a nest along the road.

Next, we went to Mudlock on River Road where an adult Osprey delivered a fish to a juvie and down the road a bit further we saw a young Bald Eagle.

Next up was the Montezuma Visitor Center that looks out over the wetlands where we saw Canada Geese, and at least 3 young Bald Eagles.

<Click it 

We then took the Wildlife Drive along the marsh area where there was plenty of nature and birds to enjoy. Great Blue Herons, shorebirds, Coots, Great Egrets, Cormorants and many species I’m not familiar with, including a young Bald Eagle in a tree by the trails edge that had no problem with sharing close proximity with us and an Osprey in flight.

We saw a couple Osprey perched in trees near Mays Point, Sandhill Cranes at 2 separate locations and a young Red-tail Hawk on a pole.

Now that was fun but the next part of our trip was my favorite as we arrived in downtown Syracuse. Joyce spotted Pigott almost immediately on top of a building near the State Tower building (the nest building). I had seen Miss Pigott for a nano second flying with her daughter Barb my last visit so I was very excited to have the opportunity to spend some time with an old friend again.

We drove around and found a better place to observe Pigott–a nice spot called Clinton Square that had water fountains in a big wading pool and benches to sit on. Pigott did some preening but mostly just looked around taking in her new territory. She had a fascinator under her right eye for a few minutes.

Pigott flew off and we went looking for her-we didn’t find where she went but as we returned from our little jaunt she was back up on the previous spot. We finished out our watch at Clinton Square with Pigott, the fountains and a couple guys on extreme pogo sticks. Boy they were flying high and so were we! 🙂

I have provided links below for a photo album with many more pics from the day and some videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqj4E

http://youtu.be/JYyx2LI3y_I

http://youtu.be/3Sp3MBfJwk0

http://youtu.be/ZS-xxSWUAHU

http://youtu.be/TT91WuxbB_M

http://youtu.be/c2K_Boxbs3I

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2014 at 3:58 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.