By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.
What a gorgeous afternoon/evening. Temps in the 70’s (F) with a soft breeze, blue sky and sunshine. Lots of folks were out on the pedestrian bridge, enjoying the weather, the beautiful view of the High Falls and the birds. So many people stopped to talk to us about the falcons, asking how they were doing. The Osprey visited too, allowing good looks to all that passed by. What kind of bird is that? It was fun talking to everyone.
When I first arrived just before 4:00 p.m., both Beauty and Dot.ca were on the Kodak Tower. They changed positions a couple times, ending up with Beauty on the SE corner of the playpen and Dot.ca on the corner of the launchpad.
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After checking out downtown and not finding any juvies, I parked at the east end of the pedestrian bridge. I was there for over and hour before I decided to walk over to the Kodak Tower for a closer look. I was looking directly into the sun and I wasn’t sure if Beauty and Dot.ca were still there. I found a spot where I was in the shade and I could see both of them. Beauty on the SE corner of the playpen and Dot.ca on the SE corner of the launchpad. Now that I was closer, I could hear a juvie vocalizing from somewhere on the KTower. I looked all over and could not find the juvie. It was time to head back to the pedestrian bridge.
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On my way back to the pedestrian bridge, I took a few pics of local interest, for those that want to learn about Rochester’s history. Did you know that we were called the Flour City in the past, not to be confused with the Flower City. The High Falls area was the location of many mills that used the river to turn the millstones that made the flower, oops, I mean flour. lol
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Here’s the history of the pedestrian bridge that the Rochester Falcon Watchers love to watch falcons from.
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and don’t even ask me why there is a giant chair??? set-up at the west end of the pedestrian bridge. Not really sure what this is supposed to be. Any ideas?
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Toronto St, in front of the Kodak Tower. Could this be why so many of our young falcons end up there? lol
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I made my way back to the pedestrian bridge and spotted a familiar face at the east end. Dan S had joined the Watch. We were soon joined by Lisa McK and Larry O. Dot.ca and the juvie we couldn’t find on the Kodak Tower took off and flew high over head. Soaring higher and higher. Now and then the juvie would catch up and they would touch talons. Then DC would continue to gain altitude and the juvie followed. Wish I knew which juvie it was.
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It looked like school was in session for the young falcon. Dot.ca was taking him up for some high flying lessons. We lost sight of them. Beauty remained on the SE corner of the playpen on the Kodak Tower.
An Osprey had flown into the gorge landing in the Falcon Sucking Tree on the east side of the gorge. Her wings were wet and she held them out to dry them and preen. After awhile, she flew under the bridge and landed on the island tree on the north side of the bridge. There is a small island with one tree growing there. The ducks and the geese usually use it. Today there were a few ducks on the island. The Osprey landed on a very thin branch that stuck up from the top of the tree. For most of the time we were on Watch, the Osprey remained in that tree preening and watching the river below. We thought for sure she would fish, but she was content to just watch. She eventually launched herself from the thin branch and headed north down the river.
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It was 8:0o pm and there was a chill in the air. We all decided it was time to end our Watch. By this time, Beauty had left the KTower. No one has seen her leave. I decided to check out the downtown area one last time before heading home. Dana and Lou were just pulling into the parking lot when we were leaving. They told us that there was a falcon on the top arm of the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT). That’s where we headed. It was Beauty and she was facing south. Above us were 100’s of gulls flying over. Beauty took off and we found her on the south side of OCSR at the south corner.
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I drove around the downtown area and could find no other falcons. It was time to head home. I’ll leave you with a picture I took of the beautiful sunset from the pedestrian bridge. The weekend is here and I truly hope that the juvies will be out and about for the Watchers to see. Goodnight everyone!
