By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Remembering 9/11, eleven years later. Today we talked about that horrible day, remembering and never forgetting! 🙁

After getting out of work today, I decided to head directly downtown to see what was going on with our falcons. Both Beauty and Dot.ca had been seen earlier, and I was still hopeful that Orion would make an appearance. Sorry to say, he was not seen again today for the third day. My first stop is usually the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). I pulled up in front of the City Hall parking lot a little before 4:00 pm. I was greeted by a very loud “CHUP CHUP CHUP!”and again “CHUP CHUP CHUP!”. Where was that coming from? This was not a vocalization that we’ve heard from Orion, but it was definitely a call I had heard from the adults before. It sound like it was coming from everywhere. Sound in that area is very deceiving. It bounces off of the surrounding buildings and makes it very hard to determine where a sound is coming from.

As I was trying to figure it out, I looked up in time to see Beauty come in for a landing on the FCT just below the platform. She landed on a favored “box” shaped structure on the NE corner. After that, I did not hear the loud vocalization again. Was it Beauty making that sound? Probably, but I couldn’t be 100% sure. Before I settled in for the next 3+ hours, I drove all over the downtown area before returning to the FCT. I was unable to find any other falcons. After a little more than 2 hrs, I was joined by Brian H and Joyce. They had just come from the BS location where they spent some time with Pigott. They had not seen Dot.ca. We were soon joined by Kathy O, Jeanne, Larry O and Lynda!

We of course got to talking about all kinds of things, including 9/11 and where Orion might be. We all thought that it was a good possibility that he had started his journey and that we might not see him again here in Rochester. But, we all hoped that he would return for a visit. 🙂 Brian H wondered if he might have met up with other Peregrine juvies that were migrating through the area and decided to follow them. Of course we will never know. I just hope that he is safe and that, one day, we will see him again. <3

From 4 to 7 pm, Beauty moved from the north side to the south side of the FCT.

At 7:00 pm, since it didn’t look like she was going to leave anytime soon, we all decided to head for the Broad St Bridge (BSB) for a look. We spent close to an hour on the bridge, looking for falcons, no luck, and the other birds in the area, especially the Herons. We got our Heron Trifecta, as Larry O calls it, tonight, one juvie Black Crowned Night Heron, one Green Heron and lots of Great Blue Herons, adults and juvies. Lynda was the first to spot a juvie Great Blue Heron sitting on the railing of the bridge just a little west of us. This is the 2nd time that I’ve heard of this happening recently. S/he didn’t stay long, just long enough for us to take a few pictures. That was very cool! Good eyes Lynda! 🙂

I didn’t get a picture of the Green Heron, but here are a few of the Great Blue on the bridge railing and a couple of the young juvie Black Capped Night Heron. He got right down to the business of looking for fish!

So, another evening Falcon Watch ended in the company of good friends and beautiful birds. It certainly doesn’t get much better than that. Now that summer is is coming to an end, many of the Rochester Falcon Watchers will continue to head downtown and they will all keep their eyes to the sky.

On my way home, I checked the FCT one more time and Beauty was no longer there. Joyce and Brian found her on her regular nightly roosting spot on top of the Xerox Bldg on the south side. Good night Beauty! Goodnight Dot.ca and Orion, wherever you are!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 11th, 2012 at 11:14 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.