By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

What an absolutely gorgeous weekend. Seeing all four Rochester Falcons and a visit to Paradise made it extra special.

Saturday (7/7)

I got out mid-morning on Saturday. My first stop, after getting my coffee and an egg mcmuffin, was a visit to Kodak Park where KPT (Kodak Park Tiercel) and maybe, just maybe, a 2^ndPefa is hanging out. A few weeks ago, MAK reported seeing two, just a quick look and not chance for a picture. I and the other Watchers are pretty sure that we are seeing two different falcons, just never at the same time. The problem at this site is that the falcons are far away from where we view them. Unless they come closer, it will be nearly impossible to get ID’s on them. The only thing I do know is that the smaller, sub-adult male has a black over black band. So he is from Canada. We believe the 2^nd Peregrine is a larger adult female.

When I arrived, KPT or the other KP falcon (maybe) was on the lower catwalk of the west smoke stack, hunting off the NW side.  I watched until the falcon landed on the north side of the catwalk where I could no longer see it.

I drove up to the parking lot we view from and called in to Kodak Dispatch, I was told a very large storm cell was looming just west of us. Bundy warned us that this storm would probably be on top of us in about 10 minutes. He wasn’t far off. I put out a tweet to warn anyone that was out and to let the viewers of the Times Square nest box know that rain and thunder and lightening was on its’ way.

I was joined in the parking lot by fellow Watchers Dana, Lisa McK and Kathy O. Lisa left just before the storm hit and Kathy got there near the end. Dana and I watched the huge tower of dark clouds approach. Thunder and lightening, high winds and a wall of water hit. We were both sitting in our cars waiting for it to pass. My car appreciated the heavy rain, way better than a car wash!

When it stopped raining, Dana, Kathy (who had arrived during the storm) and I got out of our cars and watched as the dark clouds headed towards downtown. At times the lightening was quite intense.

A quick look at KP showed that KPT had moved during the storm.  He was now sitting on the railing in front of the red door on the east smoke stack, preening.

Kathy mentioned that she was thinking of visiting MAK at Paradise and asked if Dana and I wanted to join her. Well, who was I to pass up on a trip to Paradise! We made plans to meet around noon. The three of us had a wonderful time. MAK is not exaggerating about this beautiful place. The view is incredible and it is so peaceful there. Thanks so much for the invite MAK. Loved visiting with all the critters, which included two horses, 2 dogs, and 4 kitties. We ended our visit with a trip to the local pizza shop. Yummy!

Sunday (7/8)

Another beautiful day! Temps in the 80’s, blue sky, sunshine. I do love summer.

I arrived at Kodak Park around 10 am. KPT? was on the railing in front of the red door on the east smoke stack. Again I was not certain if this was KPT or the adult female. This one seemed to be larger and much whiter. But, again, I cannot be sure, due to the distance. I wanted a closer look, but by the time I set-up my scope, the falcon was gone. Darn! These falcons can be so sneaky!

Dana joined me and we made plans to head over to the BS location to visit with Pigott. For whatever reason, this location is always oppressively hot. There is no breeze here like there was at the more open locations at KP and downtown. I found Pigott finishing her meal on the north side, west end of the building. She finished her meal and flew over towards the scrape. I texted what happened to Dana and she found her on a windowsill below the scrape. We watched her for awhile as she preened and looked at herself in the window. Pigott was the smart one, finding a nice shady spot, while we sat in the sweltering heat. Now that we knew she was ok, our next stop was downtown to check on Beauty, Dot.ca and the eyas.

The Cornhill Festival was going on, so it was very busy. Most of the bridges were filled with cars, so parking was at a premium. Dana and I parked down on Aqueduct St in a nice shady spot. Dot.ca was at the nest box looking after the eyas, while Beauty was on the green strip on the south side of the Wilder Bldg. She was flat out on her belly, with her wings spread and tail feathers flared. I think this must be something they do to cool down. They do this quite frequently when it’s really warm out.

As I was taking pictures of Beauty, she started to whine. I looked up to see that Dot.ca had joined her on the green strip, just a few feet to her left. They just kind of looked at each other. After a few moments, Dot.ca flew back up to the nest box. He was a little antsy. Moving around and taking off and landing. He flew back over to the Wilder building, passing Beauty and then back to the nest box. Beauty spread her wings and took off, heading NW. Dot.ca took off and landed on the well wall, just to the right of the nest box. He walked around a bit and then ended up back on Camera 4.

After awhile, Beauty returned and flew around the area a bit, landing on Wilder, then the top I-beam of the OCSR, then flew over the river and then FINALLY, she flew up to the nest box and Dot.ca took off. He flew over us heading east.

We waited until our shade disappeared, hoping that he would return with food for the eyas. After our shade was gone, we decided it was time to head home.

I’ve put together my first photo album in Shutterfly.  Now that KGallery is gone, they are still in the process of moving all my pictures to the new site.  They are not there yet.  So here’s my first attempt at a Shutterfly album.  Hope it works!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsmzZk4ctXJA

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2012 at 8:45 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.