By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

It’s not very often that we are given the gift of watching a Peregrine Falcon just starting its 2nd year.  So many do not survive their first year.  This young falcon is very special to the Rochester Falcon Watchers.  His name is Genesee, son of Beauty and Dot.ca and he hatched in the nest box on top of the Times Square Bldg, downtown Rochester in 2015.

I had the honor of watching him hatch, grow and fledge.  Now I am very happy to have seen him change from his juvie brown to his adult dark steel gray and white plumage.  Like I said, a gift. 🙂

I and other watchers have been spending a lot of time watching him.  He has been spending much of his time at the north end of the Genesee  River where it flows into Lake Ontario.  He is so appropriately named.  Watching his behavior is fascinating.

Genesee’s diet consists of mostly Mourning Doves and small shore birds.  He usually hunts early morning and late evening.

In the morning, he will take full advantage of the rising sun on the east side of the piers (Charlotte and Summerville).  Many times I have witnessed him take off from the Coast Guard Station tower, heading north to the end of the piers.  He will then turn left (west).  The sun is now at his back.  He usually heads back towards the beach and the trees and buildings there.  His prey would have a very hard time seeing Genesee flying towards them due to the bright morning sun.

Up until this weekend, his only aggressive behavior has been to stoop on and hit a passing Ring-billed Gull.  But something changed this weekend.

Early Sunday morning, 9/18/16, Dana and I set-up for a watch on the Charlotte side of the Genesee River (west side).  From there we had a great view of Genesee on top of the Coast Guard tower (CGT).  He was looking around, aware of everything.  No duck would fly by that he didn’t notice.  During the 6 hours of our watch, Genesee was very active.  He was in hunt mode, successful once that we know of.  The most exciting part of the watch was seeing Genesee becoming very territorial.

Turkey Vultures filled the sky, but he totally ignored them.  When a Merlin came through on a hunt, Genesee began kakking loudly.  He took off and flew over us heading west.  At first we weren’t sure what he was after, but then a Merlin flew over after chasing a bunch of pigeons.  Genesee chased the Merlin out of the area and settled back on the CGT.  He continued to kak and then finally was quiet.

It wasn’t long before Genesee started kakking again.  He took off and stooped over the trees near the Charlotte beach.  This time it was a Red-tailed Hawk that was Genesee’s target.  KAK KAK KAK!  The Red-tailed Hawk attempted to escape as Genesee stooped on it over and over again.  We saw the Red-tail fly to the east and Genesee again returned to the CGT.  This same territorial behavior was repeated one more time with another Red-tailed Hawk.  This was my first time hearing Genesee KAK and chase away other raptors.  Very interesting.

Here are some pictures I took of Genesee from this past weekend.  Enjoy! (Be sure to click on any pictures you would like to see larger.)

<— Genesee on the Coast Guard Tower.

<— Genesee Flying Over on a Hunt.

<— Genesee Chasing a Gull.

<— Genesee Stooping on a Red-tailed Hawk.

<— One of the many Turkey Vultures Flying Over. Genesee ignored them.

<— Genesee is gaining lots of fans! 🙂

<— Genesee Fly Over.

<— Genesee on the Coast Guard Tower.

It will be very interesting to see if Genesee will hang out here during the winter.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2016 at 5:59 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.