By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

We were so happy to have a new pair this year after losing Beauty and Dot.ca. When Nova and Neander laid four eggs in the Times Square nest box, we were ecstatic. When three of the eggs hatched, we fell in love all over again with three tiny, white fluff balls.

We watched them grow up, their white fluff fell out, and their beautiful brown feathers revealed themselves. We now had a hint of what they would look like as adults. I’ve always said it’s like opening a present when their masks were revealed.

But, with happiness, sometimes comes sadness.

We started the fledge watch last Tuesday, sitting in the hole (Aqueduct St), surrounded by construction and loud noise. Sometimes, if we listened very hard, we could hear the eyases crying to their parents from above.

On the 4th day of the fledge watch (Friday 7/8), KM took flight for the first time. I wasn’t there to see it, since I had been on watch for several hours that morning. It was time to head downtown to check on KM. She had flown to a building behind the Telesca Bldg. When I arrived, KM had made a 2nd flight to the top of the Wilder Bldg. She was doing great!

I may have missed Kanfai Malachim’s (KM) fledge flight, but I was there to see Zara launch herself from the end of the nest box wall on the Times Square Bldg. It was a strong flight that took her to the top of the Wilder chimney. She landed on the corner, flapped a few times and then steadied herself. It was a very good landing for her first time. She did great! Sadly, that was the last place I saw Zara. She took a couple more flights for the evening watchers who last saw her flying up to Wilder from the Telesca Bldg. After that, the evening watchers ended their watch.

I was there early Saturday morning with fellow watchers Dana Kathy O, Lisa McK, Lukka (Zara’s namer) and Alyssa. We found KM immediately on the building behind Telesca. After that we searched for Zara, but we never found her. It’s been three days now and still no sign of our Zara.

Saturday was another happy day. At 9:23 am, it was Blaze’s turn to fledge. Blaze landed on top of the Wilder Bldg very close to KM. They’ve been pretty much inseparable since then.

We are continuing to search for Zara. I am still hoping for a miracle!

This morning, Monday 7/11, I arrived downtown at 7 am. Kathy O and Dana joined me. It was going up to 90F today.

We found all four Rochester Falcons on the Powers Bldg. First the adults took off. KM and Blaze stood up and started to walk around. When Nova came back with food, the chase was on!

Both juvies (yes, they are now juvies), took off from Powers and flew towards the Times Square Bldg (TSB). Nova landed on the Powers lower roof with food. The juvies landed on the Telesca roof. Nova took off with the food and landed on the TSB NW wing ledge, where she cached the food and settled on the light.

During the morning, there was a lot of flying by both KM and Blaze, before they both settled on the NE wing ledge where they could keep an eye on mom. Neander kept watch from the south side of the OCSR, 2nd Ibeam.

By 1:00 pm, we totally lost our shade and it was getting very warm. It was time to head home.

Now to explain why I haven’t been posting any pictures. I am not able to download pictures at this time. I have lots of pictures and videos I would love to share, but I can’t at this time. So I took some pictures of pictures to share. They’re not very good, but you get the idea. Hope you enjoy!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 11th, 2022 at 6:13 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.