Thursday Evening Fledge Watch – 7/9/15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
5:00 to 8:00 pm
No other watchers out with me this evening. The weather was pretty lousy. It rained most of the day and when I arrived downtown there was a steady mist falling, making it hard to see. But, I was determined to find the downtown falcons.
Just as I arrived I received a tweet from Joyce, who had been downtown before me and had found no falcons.
From the Broad St Bridge, I found a falcon on OCSR on the west corner of the top IBeam.
I saw what I thought was a Peregrine on the Powers Bldg, but after checking my pic, I believe it was a Kestrel.
I drove around looking for more falcons. From the Andrews St Bridge, I spotted a falcon flying over the Cross Rds bldg and around to the south side of OCSR. Back to the Broad St Bridge. It was Dot.ca and he was now on the south corner of the top IBeam on OCSR. It was probably him that I saw earlier on the west corner.
OK, where were the others hiding out? It was time to head to the pedestrian bridge. It was misting pretty heavily at this point, so I put on my rain jacket and put my camera inside it to protect it from the rain. It was very quiet, only a few people ventured out onto the bridge. I checked out every tree branch and nook and cranny, but could not find a falcon anywhere.
Then I saw one. It was heading towards the gorge from downtown. Closer and closer it got. At first I thought it was a juvie. Imagine my surprise when it landed in the falcon sucking tree and I got my first look. It was Beauty!
A robin started to alarm call and dive on Beauty over and over again, just like it did yesterday when the juvies were there. Beauty kept a close eye on her “little attacker”, probably hoping it got just a little closer. Robins are very brave and protective of their young.
After about 10 minutes, Beauty took off. She flew along the gorge wall and over the observation deck. She then flew across the falls and headed south towards downtown. Beauty made her way around OCSR, over the Cross Rds Bldg and headed straight for the Powers Bldg. When she approached, a juvie flew up to her and had a bit of a talon tag with his or her mom. Both landed on the east side railing of the Powers Bldg. When I looked through my binoculars, I could only see one falcon there. It was Beauty.
I tweeted it out and headed back to the Andrews St Bridge. From there I could see Beauty on Powers and Dot.ca on the tall FCT, 2nd arm. From City Hall, I could see that there was a juvie on the short FCT, below the disk. I was not able to positively ID this juvie.
Now I had three in view. I really wanted to get all four together, but I never did. I suspected that the 2nd juvie was on the Powers Bldg with Beauty, but I could not find it after one landed there with her earlier.
The rain had finally stopped and there was a hint of sun behind the dark clouds. Tomorrow and the next few days, promise to be great weather. Sun, with temps in the 80’s (F)!
Can’t wait to see everyone that is coming in for Watcher’s Weekend. Safe travels!
