By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I left work and arrived downtown around 4 pm. As I came off of Rte 490, I noticed that there was a falcon up on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). At first I thought it might be Dot.ca, but found out that it was Beauty. She was on the top arm facing the Kodak Tower. I stayed with her for about 15 minutes and tweeted it out to the other Watchers, who were over on Aqueduct St watching Orion up on the base of the NW wing and Dot.ca on the top Ibeam of OCSR, south side.

I made my way over to where the other Watchers were gathered, plus some very special visitors from out-of-town, here for Falcon Watch Weekend.

There was a large group gathered to watch Orion’s 2nd day of flight. The Jehovah Witnesses are in town again this weekend and we were visited by many of them asking us what we were looking at. Very nice folks.

Bonnie, with her very large camera/lens, Wendy, Marcia and I walked over to get into the shade to watch Orion up on the base of the NW wing of the TSB. We watched him run around and scream until he made the short flight to the base of the NE wing. He repeated all of this and took off yet again, flying over us, heading for the OCSR bldg where Dot.ca was located. Orion made a perfect landing right next to his dad on the top IBeam. I am so impressed by his landings. He still misses his target now and then and hits a building or window, but at least he’s not traveling and high speed yet. As our friend Mark Nash from the Canadian Peregrine Foundation says, it’s better they hit a building at this stage. It will hopefully teach them to avoid doing so later.

As soon as Orion landed next to Dot.ca and started to scream again, DC took off and flew around to the back of the OCSR where we lost sight of him. I am not sure where he went.

We returned to join the other Watchers behind the Philippone Bldg. Watchers gathered tonight during my 4:00 to 9:00 pm Watch were: Bonnie, Wendy, Donna, Wendy (aka Birdmusic), MAK, Joyce, Marcia, Dana, Lisa McK, Jeanne, Dan S, Carrie, Shaky and Carol P. Larry O reported from the BS location that PIgott was on the building there near the scrape.

For the rest of the evening, we watched Orion walk and run along the Ibeam. He mostly just slept for the next couple hours. Shaky was able to move pan cam (Camera #1) over to the ledge to show Orion to the folks on the forum/live streaming video.

It was a very enjoyable watch spent with good friends I had not seen in a couple years. Cannot way for tomorrow’s Watcher Weekend Breakfast at 9:00 am at Aqueduct Park. Join us if you can! It’s going to be VERY warm tomorrow. Weather reports say it will feel like 100 degrees (F), so be prepared. Sunscreen and lots of water.

We all left at approximately 9:00 pm. Orion was laying on the top Ibeam of OCSR. Joyce reported that Dot.ca was out at the BS location, but while she was there, he headed back towards downtown. Joyce did not see Pigott. I found Beauty on the FCT platform on the NE corner on my way out of downtown.

Goodnight everyone and remember to keep your eyes to the sky. You just might see a young Peregrine fledgling learning to master the sky above Rochester. 🙂

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 11:39 PM 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.