Morning Falcon Watch featuring Genesee 9-22-15
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and bright sunshine-the starting temperature was 50 (F) 10 (C)
Billie and Seth were on the top window ledge north end of Seneca Towers across from each other and both were preening as I started out at 7am. I left them right away and headed downtown.
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It took me a while to find a PEFA but I did see a Kestrel on a light pole at Frontier Field. I checked out the river from the Broad St. bridge (BSB) and found a Black-crowned Night Heron hunting.
It flew away and just as I turned around to cross over to the other side of the bridge Dot.ca (DC) came flying in and landed on the base of Mercury at 7:42am. He took a look around then flew down to the tiny ledge below the base next to a small piece of leftover prey.
Soon after Beauty flew in and landed on the base above DC. He kept looking up then tried to land next to her but flew off instead.
A third falcon started flying with DC and at first I thought perhaps we had an intruder but it turned out to be a juvie by the name of Genesee. DC had landed on Mercury’s hand after flying past the Beautyful one a couple times as Genesee started buzzing past mom.
Beauty and DC watched as Genesee came flying in and landed on the base of Mercury. He soon jumped up to the green part of the base.
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In the meantime, Beauty stayed planted on her corner of the base as Genesee flew off. DC went after him then returned and came to rest on Mercury’s staff. After DC flew east she went up to the green part of the base. While I was taping I spotted a Great Blue Heron in the river hunting so I snapped off a pic of him as well around 8am.
A few minutes later I spotted whom I believe were DC and Genesee flying above and around Xerox from the BSB. They kept going behind the tallest building in Rochester and reappearing. Beauty was now gone from Mercury. One of them landed on one of the antennas. As I tried to find somewhere to get a better angle for identifying the falcon it left.
15 minutes later I found Beauty and DC on the Frontier Communications tower (FCT). She was on the east side platform railing and he was on the top arm.
While taping them I was focused on DC who kept looking down and when I panned the camera down to Beauty it was then that I realized what he had been watching-Genesee had joined mom on the railing. A couple minutes later as I was parked on Fitzhugh St. in front of City Hall, Genesee walked around the corner to the north side of the railing. I had to move farther down t see all of him as a beam was blocking his face.
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Genesee preened and pooped and preened some more. Just before 9am Beauty flew south and then it was father and son on FCT preening. Genesee appeared to have a little food in his crop.
When I left them, Genesee was napping as I headed for the Medley Centre to try my luck at finding Big Frank.
Well I didn’t find him but I did watch a couple crows fighting over a small bit of leftover prey. One of them flew off with it and then a bunch more followed behind out of view. I had to be somewhere so I wrapped up my watch at 9:45am and left after a fun falcon watch which featured the return once again of Genesee, the juvie that keeps on giving me smiles! 🙂
Be sure to click on the links below to see my videos of Genesee. The first one, my snippet movie, shows the Mercury sequence of events. Also included is a link to a photo album with more pics of the gang
September 22nd, 2015 at 4:25 PM
Darn, I must have missed the action on Mercury by mere seconds. As I walked into my office the clock on my phone said 7:42. Shoot! Well, thanks for the play-by-play and the great photos, MAK. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo of Mercury with a falcon on his left hand, or a photo of Mercury with three falcons!
Thanks also for the shots of my friends the herons. I haven’t seen them in a while, and I miss them. I also miss the turtle.
September 22nd, 2015 at 5:10 PM
Oh, that’s too bad Pat-it was a great show! 🙂
September 22nd, 2015 at 5:12 PM
When I saw your tweets this morning, I wish I could have gotten there to see Genesee, but it was too late. You got some great shots of him. He is canning cutie! So glad he still periodically shows up. Hope Cadence is doing well too.
September 22nd, 2015 at 6:13 PM
Boy wouldn’t it be something if Cadence came by for a visit Joyce!? 🙂