By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Today when I arrived downtown at 4:00 pm, I was on my own. Brian had texted that he was ducking for cover from the approaching T-storm into the library and Donna & MAK had some mechanical trouble. I parked on the Broad St Bridge and waited for the dark clouds to approach. There were intermittent strikes of lightning and loud booms. Just before it started to rain, I found Orion up on the TSB at the base of the SE wing. Brian reported seeing him do some high flying with his mom, Beauty, over the Chase Lincoln building that afternoon. Brian was quite impressed, even seeing Orion do some small stoops. Before going into the library, Brian reported that this was where Orion had landed after his awesome flight.

The rain moved in, but it didn’t last long. When it stopped, I saw that Orion was gone. I drove down to Aqueduct St to get a different view of the TSB. Nothing there or on Wilder or on the Widow’s Walk. Brian texted from the top of the South Ave ramp garage that he could not find any of the falcons. My next stop was the Andrew St Bridge. From there, I could see the Kodak Tower, the Frontier Communication Tower and the north side of OCSR. I was in luck. Orion was sitting on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower and Beauty was on the Kodak Tower. I quickly drove down to KO and verified that it was indeed Beauty. Yep! Next stop the Frontier Communication Tower.

From the City Hall Parking Lot, I had a great view of the FCT and KO. Dot.ca flew in and landed on the same level as Orion on a different arm.

I was joined by Dana, Kathy O, Donna, MAK and Jeanne. For the next couple hours, we watched Dot.ca stoop off of FCT, only to return empty taloned. Like Dan, I started counting his attempts. He got up to 0 for 6, when he took off for the 7th time, heading NW. This time he did not return quickly, much to Orion’s dismay. He had been screaming encouragement to his dad pretty much constantly for the whole time we were there. When dad didn’t return quick enough for his liking, he took off, heading south towards the Times Square Bldg.

Of course after Orion left, Dot.ca came in with prey. Woohoo, the 7th attempt was successful! Now where was Orion! Dot.ca landed on the 2nd arm down on the FCT and started to pluck, feathers flying. While he plucked, he looked around. We were wondering if he would go in search of Orion or not, that’s when we could all hear a screaming sound coming in from the south. It got louder and louder until finally, Orion arrived in all his glory! 🙂

Dot.ca landed on the south side of the FCT platform and so did Orion. It was on the opposite side of the tower and we did not see exactly what happened, but boy was it loud! I walked down and saw DC sitting up on the railing of the platform with Orion below him. As I watched, Orion clutched the prey in his right talon and drag it across the grating of the platform. I could see him through the grating from below. He took it to the edge of the platform on the SE corner, where it was really hard to see him. But, we could see his head every now and then definitely enjoying his evening meal. It was a perfect ending to my evening watch.

I returned to the others and explained what I saw. We were losing light at 8:00 pm, so I decided to end my watch.

I learned that today would be Donna’s last day on the fledge watch. She would be returning home tomorrow. Thanks so much for helping out with the fledge watch Donna! I am sure that you will be keeping your eyes on the Rochester sky again soon. Safe trip!

Here are a few pictures from tonite’s fledge watch in a Shutterfly Album.  No sign on needed.  Enjoy!

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 at 11:42 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.