Saturday Morning Falcon Watch – 8/4/18
By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
The heat continues, on and on and on and on……
High 80’s today and mid-90’s the next two days. Plus the high humidity, makes it pretty much unbearable.
*Please be sure to click on any pictures to see the full image.*
I arrived on the Court St Bridge (CSB) just before 6 am. I had hoped to find Dan there. After about 15 minutes, with no falcon watchers or falcons in sight, I headed over to the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). As I approached, I could see a falcon on the lowest arm. It was Beauty and she was facing south.
About three minutes later, I heard that most wonderful sound of a juvie wailing. It landed on the east side platform railing, just below Beauty.
While I was tweeting this out, both took off while I wasn’t looking. This happens very frequently to the falcon watchers. Again, I was searching. From the CSB, I found Beauty on the Jail Communication Tower (JCT). From where I was, I could not find the juvie.
Beauty took off, heading north, back towards the FCT. That’s exactly where I found her. She was in hunt mode, so I settled in to watch her, hoping the juvie would return.
At 7:30 am, Beauty took off, this time heading west. I waited to see if she would return.
Eight minutes later, a falcon flew in from the east, carrying food and landing on top of the large white drum on FCT. The juvie was following close behind, also landing on the drum. It was Dot.ca who had brought in food for the juvie.
Dot.ca left the juvie and landed up on FCT.
Larry joined me, with Zeke. He collected one of the feathers that fell from the prey the juvie was eating. Can anyone guess what it might be?
We were chatting when I yelled out FOOD! lol Now you have to know that I saw a falcon flying in low carrying prey. Larry knew exactly what I meant when I yelled FOOD! hahaha! It was Beauty and she landed very low on the Frontier Communication Tower. She had brought in a pigeon, and she was panting when she landed.
The juvie finished eating and hopped off the drum into the framework. Dot.ca watched from above.
Beauty continued to eat her meal, until there was just a little bit left.
The juvie continued to wail, loudly. Guess Dot.ca’s offering wasn’t big enough. When Beauty finished eating, she looked up at her young one, answering softly. Beauty took off with her leftovers and the juvie followed. The juvie flew up to meet her and Larry and I watched a perfect food transfer overhead. After tucking the food in, the juvie returned to the FCT.
After eating, the juvie took off with the food and took it up to the top of the drum. It looked like a good place to cache the food. Both the juvie and Beauty had very full crops.
Dot.ca had other ideas for the leftovers. It was his turn to eat breakfast. He landed next to the juvie on the drum. The juvie wasn’t happy, but decided to let dad have it.
While Beauty watched from above on the platform, the juvie landed below her in the framework.
Joyce, with Abbey & Casey, joined me at about 10 am. Dot.ca finished his meal and flew over, landing just below the juvie. This was our first good comparison. Based on the size difference, we believe that the juvie we had been watching all morning was Sundara. I never did get a good enough picture of her bands for a positive ID.
This was the time my camera battery died. So no more pictures. While Joyce and I watched over the next hour, Dot.ca gave a stooping lesson to Sundara. He dove off of the tower and Sundara followed. Beauty followed after them. All three ended up very low on the communication tower. That’s where they remained, until I left at a little before 11 am. After I left, Joyce reported seeing both Beauty and Dot.ca leave.
Tomorrow will be a very warm day. Stay cool everyone!
