Fledge/juvie watch 8-15-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
Last night on the bridge after the attempted food transfers I said to Carol that I hoped Dan would see one in the morning. Well, not only did Dan see the first witnessed food exchange for Orion but so did I!!! It was spectacular and Orion stayed upside down for quite a long time as he made sure he got that food from Beauty. Here’s the set up-I arrive on the Broad St. bridge(BSB) about 6:40am and see Dan and LarryO in their chairs and Orion is on the base of Mercury.
He stoops off the other side going behind the Thomson Reuters building where we lost him. Next thing we know Orion has some how snuck back to Mercury and before we catch our breath from that sequence I spot beauty flying in over the river with a small package. Orion starts singing very loud and off he goes toward his mom. Over the river between the Rochester Convention Center and Thomson Reuters he meets her flips upside down and stayed that way until he got a good grip of it and off he flew out of view. This transfer was made in the same general area as in 2010 when Beauty exchanged prey to Callidora for everyone to see by Aqueduct Park during the watchers weekend brunch.
Beauty flew to the southwest corner of the Wilder building where Larry found her and then Orion flew in and chased Beauty over to the nest box by the main cam.
They didn’t stay but for a few seconds with his mouth open the whole time. They both flew off together with Beauty landing on Mercury and Orion right behind her to knock her off the base. Both Orion and Beauty flew together,then he would chase her and mini stoop on her from one side of the river to the other all the while singing away. They were so much fun to watch that I just stood there taking it all in and unfortunately got no pics.Sorry guys!
Orion returned and flew to the Hyatt hotel landing on the northwest corner lower roof.
click the pics for full version
Larry and Dan left so I went down to observe from the parking lot by the hole where DebbieH stopped on her way to work. Orion flew off the Hyatt crossed the river past OCSR and over Crossroads heading west toward the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT). I left and walked over to my bench on the corner of Church and Fitzhugh streets. I had spotted Dot.Ca on the FCT platform railing south side from State St on my way over. I next located Orion down low on the tower eating where he and mom had their food fight yesterday. Then I saw Beauty directly above him looking down watching over her little darling.
Beauty was plucking feathers from a pigeon wing and Orion was keeping an eye on her from the stick nest at the northeast corner of the lower catwalk.
Orion moved to a north side ibeam and then stooped off of it while mom and dad went on with what they were doing. DC remained on platform railing preening when Orion returned only to fly off with Beauty. He returned with the wing Beauty had been prepping and started eating. I’m thinking another food transfer took place. Orion finished off this small meal filling his crop and then fly-hopped over to the stick nest for another nap.
Everyone was settled for a while so I made my way to the Sister Cities garage and up to the top ramp for a birds eye view of the FCT and the city. I could see Orion flattened out on the stick nest so then I took a few pics to show the folks online what I could see from there. When I got back to watching our sleepy boy he was up and DC was there as well on the north ibeam peeking at him. Orion had some choice words for dad as they were moving around and then Orion flew off.
When I came down from the garage DC was gone and only the Beautyful one remained under the platform sound asleep.
I ended my watch at this point knowing that our young fledgling was learning his lessons well which naturally put a big ole smile on this watchers face! 🙂
Pics and videos can be viewed at the links below
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August 15th, 2012 at 9:11 PM
LOVED this report and those pics.
When Orion sits in that stick nest he is still like our little baby falcon.
He is so darn cute!!!!
🙂
August 15th, 2012 at 11:10 PM
MAK, That was one gratifying watch! Sorry if this was already answered, but do you know whose stick nest that is? Orion sure is drawn to it.
August 16th, 2012 at 5:58 AM
Barb we don’t know who the nest belonged to but we know who has claimed it! Orion id making good use of it. Ginny he soo isn’t a baby anymore but he’s still very cute! 🙂