By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

2:00 – 3:30 pm

I had an hour and a half to watch falcons yesterday afternoon.  That’s not a long time, but I wanted to make the most of my free time.  🙂

Juvie sightings have been getting less and less.  It’s time for them to start wandering.   Since I found no falcons downtown, I headed over to the Kodak Tower.  There I found Dot.ca on the east side arch ledge.

<— Dot.ca on Kodak Tower.

Dot.ca was mostly looking towards the east, the gorge, so that’s where I headed next.  I walked out onto the east end of the pedestrian bridge.  Oh, such a beautiful view!  I miss those days of watching falcons flying over the gorge.

Due to all the rain we’ve had lately, there was a lot of water moving over the falls to the river below.  Most of the island was covered in water.

I am happy to report that, what we call the falcon sucking tree, is still there on the east side gorge wall.  Most of our falcons, over the years, have landed here.  🙂

<— Falcon Sucking Tree!!  🙂

I could hear a juvie Red-tail Hawk vocalizing somewhere on the north side of the pedestrian bridge, but I couldn’t see it.  But, I did spot momma Red-tail Hawk on the Smith St smoke stack, keeping watch over her young one.

<— Momma Red-tail Hawk on the Smith St smoke stack.

A 2nd falcon flew up to the Kodak Tower, circling it and landing on the south side arch ledge.  This is directly above the netting that still covers the spot where Mariah and Kaver’s nest box was located for so many years.  Another falcon took off and landed on the launch pad on the east side.  It walked around to the south side.

I walked down to the west end of the pedestrian bridge for a closer look.

<— Adult falcon on Kodak Tower south side arch ledge.

<— View of Kodak Tower from the west end of the pedestrian bridge.

<— Brown’s Race has fountains now!

<— Where the BeeBee Station (RG&E) and its’ 3 smoke stacks were located.  (Remember Bricks for Chicks?)

I could not see the falcon that had gone up to the launch pad.

Because I was running out of time, I headed back to the pedestrian bridge.  That’s when a juvie falcon flew in from the north, over the bridge and along the east side gorge wall towards the falls.  This all happened at the east end, of course I was at the west end of the bridge.  lol

By the time I got to the middle of the pedestrian bridge, I had lost sight of the juvie.  But, there was an adult now flying over.  Too far for me to tell if it was Beauty or Dot.ca.  The other adult was still on the Kodak Tower.  So I had two adults and a juvie during my watch.

<— Adult Peregrine Falcon flying over the gorge.

I scanned the area for the juvie, but I could not find it.  The adult continued soaring high above.

It’s very frustrating when you have to end a falcon watch when you’re ready to leave.  lol  It was time to go.

When I was getting into my car, I looked back towards the gorge to see a falcon dive bombing a Red-tail Hawk almost directly over the pedestrian bridge.  You know I’ll be back there soon.  🙂

Enjoy the day everyone!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 15th, 2017 at 7:47 AM 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.