By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Another day done at work.  Time to get out and find me some falcons!  🙂  I arrived downtown just before 4:00 pm.  After checking the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) and Kodak Office, I headed straight for the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  There I found an adult falcon on the top Ibeam, south side of OCSR.  Looked like Dot.ca to me.  Onward to see if I could find Orion and Beauty.  After circling the downtown area, I came up empty handed, no falcons in sight.  So back to the BSB I went, just to find out that Dot.ca had left while I was searching for the others.

Time to search again.  At 4:40 pm, I parked on the Andrew St Bridge and found a falcon on the top arm of the FCT.  Looked like Dot.ca had moved over there from the OCSR.  It wasn’t long before Dot.ca took off yet again, stooping off to the south.  I took a quick break and drove over to the FCT.  At 5:30 pm, I found Beauty underneath the platform preening.  While I watched Beauty, I heard a very familiar, very loud vocalization approaching from the south, coming in fast!  Seemingly at supersonic speed, first Dot.ca flew in and landed on the FCT below Beauty.  Hot on D.C.’s tail was a little spitfire, no slouch in the speed department himself.  Orion approached the FCT, he threw up his landing gear and made a perfect landing just to the left of D.C.’s position.  D.C. didn’t miss a beat as he plucked the small Starling sized bird he caught.

Beauty remained, very attentive to what was going on.  Orion continued to wail at the top of his lungs, sounding like he was going horse.  Dot.ca continued to pluck.  Finally, it must have been to his liking.  Dot.ca took off with the small package held in one talon.  He flew south for a very short distance and then did a U-turn back towards the FCT, landing a couple feet to the left of Orion, who sprinted towards his dad and grabbed the offering.  Silence.

Beauty must have been pleased with this outcome, because she spread her wings and took off heading south east.  Dot.ca followed, leaving the now quiet Orion to his dinner.  I was sorry not to hear the “nom nom nom’s” we heard from him when he was younger and being fed in the nest box.  I was ready to video just to get that sound which I loved so much.  Now Orion was a big boy and he could feed himself, which he did on the platform containing the old Crows nest.

At 6:30 pm, Orion was finished eating, time to play.  First on the agenda, play in the old Crows nest.  Rearrange some sticks, tidy it up a bit.  Next, run down the length of the platform a couple times before settling on the railing looking south, the direction both Beauty & Dot.ca took after he started to eat.  See, he was paying attention!  lol

There must have been something going on and City Hall tonight.  Lots of folks coming in for something and it seemed that every one of them wanted to know about the falcons.  I love that they are so interested.  But, it has its’ consequences.  While I was answering questions, Orion disappeared from view.  I wasn’t sure if he laid down out of sight for a nap or if he flew off of the FCT.  I waited awhile to make sure he wasn’t up there.  After awhile, I got in my car and drove over to the BSB where I found Dot.ca on the top IBeam of the OCSR, south side (6:40 pm).  I stayed there for awhile before going in search of Beauty and Orion.  At 7 pm, I found Beauty on the SE corner of HSBC, looking east.  No sign of Orion.  So back to the BSB, where I joined Kathy O and Jeanne.  Larry O soon arrived and we amused ourselves by watching Dot.ca and the critters on the river below, which included a baby raccoon, playing at the waters edge.

Larry drew our attention to a small bird that landed on the IBeam below Dot.ca.  It kept flying in front of the windows, probably getting bugs.  This was not a very smart location to be doing this.  As we watched, Dot.ca stooped down the face of the building and almost snatched the small bird.  Just missed the very lucky little bird!  Dot.ca flew around a bit and ended up back on the top IBeam.

At 7:40 pm, I decided to end my Watch and leave it to my fellow Watchers to finish the evening Watch.  On the way out of downtown, I checked the FCT, but could not see Orion up there.  I let them know and headed home.  But of course, I had to check KP on the way home.

I was really happy to see KPT on the catwalk of the east stack.  He was very alert, head turning in every direction, doing his best Linda Blair imitation.  🙂  If this is the same falcon we’ve been seeing all along (and I have no reason not to think it is), he has really lost a lot of juvie plumage and is turning into quite the handsome adult.  Very white chest and dark helmet.  Hope he sticks around and we’re able to positively ID him soon.  All we know is that he has a black over black band, which means he was hatched in Canada.  As I watched, KPT stooped off of the catwalk and then flew around to the north side of the building.  He was definitely in hunt mode.

It was finally time for me to head home.  It had been a very long day, but it ended with me doing my most favorite thing, keeping my eyes to the sky and seeing FALCONS!  🙂

Here is a link to my Shutterfly album with some pics from today.  No sign on needed.  Enjoy!

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsmzZk4ctX-Q

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 at 11:56 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.