By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Overcast and gloomy.  I really thought it might rain at any moment.  Thankfully, except for a little drizzle, it stayed rain free. But, the lighting was horrible.

I checked all over downtown looking for a falcon.  It wasn’t until 2:00 pm, from the Andrews St Bridge (ASB), that I saw my first falcon.  It was Dot.ca (DC) on the north corner, 2nd IBeam of OCSR.  I decided to remain parked on the ASB.  From there I had a great view of many of the places that our falcons frequented.

A half hour later, I saw a bunch of pigeons in panicked flight over the river.  There were two falcons in the mix on what I believe was a tandem hunt.  One falcon went low over the buildings on the east side of the river.  The 2nd falcon flew up to the north side of the Radisson, landing on the top window ledge near the northwest corner.  After checking my pictures, I believe it was Genesee that had been tandem hunting with Dot.ca.  I had tweeted that it was Beauty and Dot.ca.

I can not say positively that it was Genesee, but my pictures do show a black/green band on one leg and a silver band on the other.  For the purposes of this report, I will call the juvie Genesee because I believe there is a good chance that it was.

At 2:50 pm, Genesee took off, heading east.  I looked for him but could not find him.  Fifteen minutes later, I was on the Broad St Bridge with Beauty on the base of Mercury and Dot.ca on the top Ibeam (south side) of OCSR.

At 3:15 pm, a juvie flew in from the south and up towards the Mercury statue, vocalizing quite loudly.  I thought he landed, but I could not find him. Beauty remained on Mercury, but Dot.ca was gone.  Back to the Andrews St Bridge.  From there I could see a falcon on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) on the SE box.  From the front of City Hall, I could only see the back of this falcon.  I thought it might be a juvie, but found out that it was Dot.ca.  There was a 2nd falcon lower in the frame work of the tower. Beauty had joined him.  But where was the juvie?

Dana joined me in front of City Hall.  We were both getting ready to continue our search for Genesee, when Dana spotted a juvie on the east side of the railing on Widows Walk (WW).  From the south side of WW I was able to see the juvie thru the railing.

Genesee took off, stooping after a pigeon heading west.  He almost caught the pigeon, but it swerved at the last moment. Genesee continued heading north towards FCT.  Back at FCT, I could see that Beauty and Dot.ca were still there.  I looked up just in time to see Genesee take off from the north end of the building that Beauty uses to take baths.  He spread his wings and flew over me heading east.  Soon after both Beauty and Dot.ca headed east too.

Dana and I found Beauty on the base of Mercury, but we were unable to find Dot.ca or Genesee.  It was time to head home.

I did check Medley Ctr on the way home, but saw no falcons there.

One more thing, On her way downtown, Dana found two falcons at the nest box at Hawkeye.  The larger adult falcon had a purple USFW band on the right leg, with black/red on left leg.  She could not read the #’s on the band.  This falcon did have a full crop.  Purple USFW bands are used on falcons banded in the midwest.  Dana could not tell if the smaller falcon was banded.

This is the season when falcons are migrating, so it’s not surprising that we’re seeing more come through the area.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2015 at 11:44 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.