By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Evening Watchers: Kathy O, Larry O, Jeanne, Carrie, Shaky, Lisa McK and Carol P.

I think it’s time to switch over to Falcon Watches vs Fledge Watches.  Orion is above and beyond fledging at this point!  WooHoo!  🙂

Well, it sounds like MAK had a nice morning Watch with lots of activity by Orion.  The nighttime Watch was much quieter, but we did have a little bit of flying by both Orion and Beauty (and maybe DC, we can’t be sure) before they tucked into their respective roosting spots for the night.

Got a late start tonigh, so I didn’t arrive downtown until about 6:00 pm.  The sun was shining with barely a cloud in the sky.  But there was just a hint of coolness in the air.  Just a reminder that Summer was drawing to an end and Fall was waiting to make an appearance.  I first checked out the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  All was very quiet, no falcons there.  Next stop Kodak Office (KO).  It wasn’t quiet, but for a different reason than a very loud juvie falcon.  They were working at the base of the last remaining smoke stack at the BeeBee Station, the High Falls Stack.  Not exactly sure what’s going on there, but I did notice something I hadn’t expected to see.  Half of the catwalk was missing from the middle of the smoke stack.  Too many places with memories of falcons past are disappearing.  Oh, well.  We have new falcons to Watch, and that is a good thing.

I checked other known Pefa hangouts and ended up on the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  Absolutely no falcons were in view from the bridge.  OK, time for a ride around the downtown area.  Finally, I found a falcon sitting up on the south side of the Xerox Bldg, 5 columns in from the SE corner.  I drove around for a better view and saw that it was Beauty.  She was in the spot she usually loved to roost at night when she wasn’t in nesting season.  This was her fall/winter spot.  I hadn’t seen her up here in quite awhile.  I ended up parking in the parking lot near the Geva Theater.  Figured I’d keep watching Beauty for now.  Usually when you found Beauty, you found Orion.

I was soon joined by Kathy O and Larry O.  After awhile, we received a tweet from Jeanne, who was up on the BSB.  There was a falcon eating on the Times Square Bldg (TSB), one level above the nest box, and feathers were flying!  Carrie and Shaky arrived and we all decided to go to the BSB.  We arrived just in time to see the falcon there for just a few moments before it flew around to the back of the TSB and out of sight.  Then we saw two flying over the river and library heading east towards the Xerox bldg.  We were unable to ID any of them, so have no idea who was eating on the TSB.

Lisa McK arrived and she, Kathy and I decided to check out the Xerox area where we saw the two falcons flying.  One falcon was sitting on the SW corner of the HSBC bldg.  Looked like Beauty to me.  It wasn’t long before a 2nd falcon flew in and landed above Beauty on the railing.  There was no doubt whatsoever that this was Orion.  He announced his arrival loudly to all.  lol  Beauty took off and flew around Xerox, finally settling on the 5th column she had been on when I first arrived.  Orion decided HE wanted to join his momma.  Up he went!  Flap, flap, flap, higher and higher, until he finally made it up to the top.  He attempted to land on the same column as Beauty, but missed.  He ended up landing for just a few seconds on the SE corner of Xerox and then coming off and around to the east side, where we lost him.

It was getting dark when Jeanne tweeted from the BSB that Carrie had just spotted Orion land on the top IBeam of the OCSR.  He did his usual sprint down the length of the IBeam and ended up tucked into the elevator shaft.  So at 8:30 pm, Beauty was on her favorite nighttime spot on the south side of the Xerox Bldg and Orion was on his, on the top IBeam of OCSR south side.  Kathy and I joined Jeanne, Carrie and Shaky on the BSB and compared notes about what was seen tonight.  Not a whole lot of activity like there usually is during the day, but that’s ok.  Sometimes, it’s nice to have a calm and quiet Watch.

As it got darker and we could barely make out Orion, ducks and geese started to move up and down the river.  They were flying over us, back and forth, very low.  Very cool to see!

So, whether it’s morning, afternoon or evening, you should ALWAYS have your eyes to the sky.  You just never know what you’ll see!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2012 at 11:00 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.