Fledge/juvie watch 8-17-12
By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK
I was happy it wasn’t raining when I left for my watch this morning as it’s hard to keep myself and my equipment (dragged behind me on my 2 wheel cart) dry when walking to the bus stop. Once I get downtown I can find cover where I don’t need to use an umbrella. I didn’t expect Dan or Larry to be on the Broad St. bridge but when I made the turn at Broad and Exchange I could see Dans’ car parked up on the bridge. As I got closer I could see that he was watching something on the east side near Xerox so I stopped,unpacked my binocs and took a look. Yep there was a falcon flying above Xerox,Bausch&Lomb and Midtown. When I joined Dan I saw another falcon join in so we had 2 flying around up there. After they left our field of view Dan told me that Orion had been chasing ducks and gulls up and down the river before I got there. Larry pulled up a few minutes later and the 3 of us stood there looking for pefas with no luck. As it started to rain Larry said he was outta there and then Dan left as well.
I headed for the South Ave. ramp garage for shelter. I would go to the 6th floor just below the roof ramp where I had cover from the rain. The only drawback is that you have to walk from one end to the other to see stuff unlike the top ramp where there’s nothing above you but the sky and birds! As I hungout with no falcons in view, I remembered that Dan also told me that Orion had tried to land on the money bag hand of Mercury without success. He’s a fast study for yesterday is the first time Beauty has been up there that I know of since Orion was hatched. The kid wants to be like his mom,not a bad thing to aspire to for she is an awesome Peregrine! I saw the Beautyful one touch down on it and leave quickly one other time since she returned from rehab.
So about 45 minutes after arriving at the garage I spotted a falcon on the Times Square building on the southeast ledge one level above the nest box. It was too dark,raining too hard and too far away to ID until 5 minutes later it flew off coming across the river straight at me.
Click pic for full version
He came close enough for me to see his juvie colors and markings determining that it was indeed our little star Orion! He changed direction as he crossed the river and turned north flying over the Radisson and crossing the river to OCSR landing on the top of the elevator shaft.
Orion stayed for but a minute and left when I wasn’t looking so I had no idea what direction he went. Things were quiet as it continued to rain and the wind picked up blowing the rain sideways at times. I know Orion likes the rain but the wind could get him in trouble so I was little concerned but not really worried. He’s a good strong flyer but…accidents do happen. 15 minutes later I spotted who I think but can’t say for sure was Orion flying low over South Ave. between the 2 libraries and veering off to the southeast behind Frontier and out of sight.
15 minutes or so passed when I noticed a falcon on the top ibeam of OCSR near the south corner. It looked pretty white thru the raindrops so I thought perhaps it was Dot.Ca. A security guard came up to me and asked what I was doing then asked that we stop at the security desk and let them know we’re going up to watch falcons when we come.
10 minutes later I noticed pigeons flying in panic mode over Cornhill heading north and then I saw a falcon catch up to them really fast and hit one of them and continue the chase over the jail behind Times Square and Widows Walk breaking it off, then out of view. I thought maybe it went to the Frontier Communications Tower and since it had stopped raining I left the garage and made my way over to FCT. On my way I stopped in the hole and took a pic of the bird on OCSR. I couldn’t say for sure but it looked like Beauty to me.
She flew off and so I continued to FCT checking along the way. At the tower, from the ground I didn’t see any falcons and when I went to the top of the Sister Cities garage(SCG) I couldn’t see any either. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t one or 2 in there hiding for it can be difficult spotting them in all that metal work. I stayed for an hour or so longer seeing no movement or bumps anywhere and so ended my watch to go take care of some business. Even tho the weather wasn’t exactly ideal for falcon watching I did see 1 or 2 or maybe all 3 of our downtown Rochester Peregrine Falcons and you know that makes me smile! 🙂
