By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

A new day dawned with sweet sunshine and a temperature of 58 (F) 14 (C)

I made my usual U-turn on Seth Green Dr. just beyond the visitor parking area where I can see the west and south sides of Seneca Towers (ST) through the trees. Seth was on the northwest corner railing waiting for me, or so I’d like to think. He stooped down into the river gorge and I could hear a juvie whining.

I chose to go over to East Ridge Rd. where it meets St. Paul St. by the Northridge Church to check the east and north sides of ST instead of leaving for downtown since Carol was already down there-she and Dana had seen a juvie here yesterday. Of course I was thrilled to hear Billie and Seth had a successful nest but after spending a lot of time in the past week looking for a juvie, I was determined to see it for myself.   In the meantime, I found Seth on the top window ledge at the north end. He flew off alarm calling to the north and returned to land on the northwest corner railing. Again he flew off alarm calling heading south this time.

Seth kept looking down and made several stoops only to return with no catch so I started thinking maybe all this had something to do with a fledgling being down there somewhere.

Billie flew in from the north and joined her mate on the railing-they bowed and vocalized a couple times and both kept looking down. Now I really suspected they were watching their baby.

Seth flew down yet again and returned to the west side railing where they bowed again and then he moved over near Buffalo Billie for another bow and a discussion. There’s no question about their bond to each other. Carol and Larry had reported seeing both downtown juvies so I felt I could stay at Seneca Towers and look for this juvie.

Seth flew off again and then Billie started kakking-it was her turn to dive off the building. She went straight down then I watched as she flew very low at the north end of the building going back and forth a few times-she couldn’t have been any more than 3 stories high kakking the whole time. That’s it, now I was convinced all of their behavior was juvie related.

I thought perhaps the juvie was on a tree or something so I decided it was time to get closer and I went to my parking lot, gathered up my equipment and climbed the hill behind and below the north end of the building. I snapped a couple pics of an adult on the northwest corner then I proceeded down the hill and up another one to a elevated walkway below the west side of ST and this is where I finally laid eyes on the fledgling.

<Juvie

Billie was down at the northwest corner and Seth was 20-30 feet away from his offspring on the west side railing. He flew down near Billie after a few minutes then flew off out of view. I was backed up to a fence that separated me from the river gorge and I have to say between being scared of heights and the excitement of seeing a juvie on my building I was shaking!

<seth watching his kid

I made the decision to go over across from the main entrance to ST to see if I had a better view but it was pretty much the same except I couldn’t see Billie on the corner. That’s ok, this time of year it’s pretty much all about the fledglings. I took a few more pics and decided since the adults were both gone and our newest Rochester fledgling was sleeping with a full crop, I ended my watch at 9:15am.

Boy, what a giant smile this mornings watch put on this watchers face! 🙂

Click on the links below to view today’s videos

http://youtu.be/MJyHw2CUnBc

http://youtu.be/l7ZoTPRgpRw

http://youtu.be/Z1AWuZl0YE8

http://youtu.be/Pq3fk0lkpmM

http://youtu.be/enG-jSxCrwk

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2015 at 12:55 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.