By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Watchers:  Joyce, Kathy O, Dana, Larry O, Dan S, Jeanne, Lisa McK, Young Joe and his mom Laura

A very exciting and scary evening Falcon Watch.  I really hate battles between the Peregrines, but tonight’s battle was more tense than normal ones, which are very tense!  Tonight a 3rd Peregrine came in to the downtown area, over the Chase Lincoln Bldg.  Beauty was off the TSB in a flash and Joe, our newest (and youngest) falcon watcher reported he heard alarm kakking.  We watched as Beauty approached this intruder, that we believe was another female based on size.  The two came together and the battle began. Was this Pigott?  There is no way of knowing.

We were very worried for both Peregrines.  No one wanted to see either of them get hurt, but Beauty was protecting her territory and her young, newly fledged son, Orion.  At first we questioned if it was truly a battle.  As we watched, it became more and more intense.  Then to our surprise, a 3rd smaller falcon joined in the fray.  We looked back at the TSB and D.C. was still there.  This 3rd combatant was Orion!  He took turns with Beauty, stooping on the hapless female, that could just barely keep flying, attempting to get out of Dodge.  A couple times, we saw her go talons up to protect herself as both Beauty and Orion took turns hitting her.  The gathered Watchers had never seen this behavior before by a youngster.  Did Orion think this was a game?  Was he playing?  It was impossible to know.  All three continued east and out of our sight.  Kathy O, Lisa McK and Joyce decided to follow to see if they could find them.

The rest of us remained on the Broad St Bridge.  D.C. remained on the base of the SE wing.  He never budged through the whole thing that lasted approximately two minutes, although it seemed much longer!

While waiting for B&O to return, Larry spotted a falcon on the FCT.  Kathy called to tell me that they were over there and that they were 95% sure that it was Beauty.  But, where was Orion!  It wasn’t long before we first heard and then saw our little guy fly in towards the TSB, where he kicked D.C. off of the base of the wing.  Orion landed there and D.C. flew up to the NE wing ring at the tippy top of the wing.  I immediately got on the phone with Kathy and she, Lisa and Joyce were very happy to hear that he had returned.  They still had Beauty on the FCT.

Everyone returned to the BSB and we all chatted about what had happened.  Definitely nothing that any of us had seen before.  Pretty incredible.  During the next 1/2 hr, Orion did a lot of flying around the TSB, following dad out to the jail communication tower and then returning to the base of the SW wing of TSB.  He seemed none the worse for his adventure.  We were all so happy to see that he was ok.  At 8:00 pm I decided to end my Watch, hoping to return early tomorrow morning.

On her way home, Joyce checked out the BS location and found a falcon on the silver vent on the back of the building.  We assume that this was Pigott.  If it was her in the battle, and we can’t be sure it was, she had made it back ok.  I checked KP on the way home and found KPT on his normal nightly roosting spot on the east smokestack.

So it was a day of turmoil for our falcons, but at the end of the day, all were accounted for.  A very nice way to end the evening.  🙂

Oh, and by the way, I switched over to video during the battle and was able to catch a little bit of it.  Be patient, it takes me awhile to actually find the falcons in the sky and focus on them, but I eventually do.  By pure luck, I focused on the intruding female.  You will see her being double teamed by both Beauty and Orion.  I won’t say enjoy, because I really do hate these battles, but here is a glimpse of what we witnessed tonight.

http://youtu.be/4rGRYrfA0ZE

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! 🙂

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I took a look at the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT) as I passed it on the bus this morning and I didn’t see any bumps. However when I got on the Broad St. Bridge(BSB) Larry said there was a pefa on the E side railing. I looked at Dan and said gee I wish those bus windows got cleaned more often! lol  Orion is the star of this show  and he certainly has provided us with some entertainment and no mishaps. (knock on wood) Today was no exception as the first action came from our little star as he came flying in after some pigeons. And then a bit later he was stooping on pigeons without hitting them, but showed pretty good speed.  He landed on his spot over at the Hyatt northwest lower corner and stooped down the face of it after a pigeon. Good stuff for a fledged falcon of only 2 weeks!

Just before Larry and Dan left Beauty came flying over the river near Aqueduct Park with a package and Orion was after her in a flash. They flew behind the Radisson Hotel out of view and then Dan saw Orion land on a window ledge on the pink hotel. Beauty appeared with nothing in her talons and flew over to Mercury. She landed on the outstretched money bag hand of Mercury and brought tears to my eyes. You see she has only been on this, her favorite perching spot( before rehab) one other time since returning to her territory.

I went down to the hole to see the Radisson better and locate exactly where Orion had gone. He was on a window ledge facing the river 3 row down from roof and 5 windows across from the north end of the hotel. Orion was on the north end of the ledge and there was prey at the south end when I first found him. Then Beauty joined him plopping herself right on top of the prey.

Now we didn’t know if there was a food exchange behind the hotel of if Beauty had dropped it off on this ledge but our sweet little Orion wanted it and he turned into a little devil as you’ll see on my videos from the event. Beauty would win this battle and fly to the base of Mercury with it and Orion would follow her to continue the action. He had a song for her before he chased her off  the base .

Click on the pics for full version

They flew behind Thomson Reuters and the next time I saw them they were flying west behind the Crossroads building toward FCT. Off I went to my bench near City Hall to find me a falcon or 2 on FCT. Both Beauty and Orion were under the platform and they would remain there for most of the rest of my watch hiding on me at times. Regretfully Dot.Ca was not present downtown during any of my 6 hour watch.

Orion left a couple times and did some great sky dancing over the gorge and the east side of the river. Joyce joined me on the Sister Cities garage  and DebbieH with her co-worker Paula came up on their lunch break. My head was banging so I decided to go home just before 1:00 but as usual our Rochester Peregrine Falcons made me smile on this watch! 🙂

Click on the links for more pics and videos

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrFxg

http://youtu.be/1yAUPtfbD5Q

http://youtu.be/EIU29IDWObQ

http://youtu.be/C8zFSDyFTt8

http://youtu.be/fS04PAf0TME

http://youtu.be/EUdL53H1ehc

http://youtu.be/h8NB8x6uh80

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After reading MAK’s tweets from this morning that she, Dan and Larry O witnessed a food exchange between Beauty and Orion, I just had to get downtown ASAP after work.  I pulled up onto the Broad St Bridge at approximately 4:00 pm.  Brian H had been reporting from the South Ave garage.  He had all three in sight; Beauty in the nest box, Dot.ca on the 2nd IBeam down on the south side of the OCSR and Orion aka the Road Runner (beep! beep!) up on the top IBeam running up and down from one end to another and actually turning the corner to the north side.  When I arrived, Brian reported that Orion had moved up to the top of the elevator shaft at the east end of the OCSR.  I got there just in time to see him up there and then….he was gone!  Poof!  I called Brian and he told me that Orion had taken off and headed north, past the Sheraton.  I got back into my car and went to look for him with no luck.

Back at the Broad St Bridge (BSB), I had Beauty and Dot.ca in the same places I left them.  I figured that Orion would hopefully return to his parents soon.  Uh, uh!  Not our little independent Orion.  While I was waiting, Brian joined me on the bridge.  While we were talking, DC took off, but we missed what direction he went.  Beauty was still in the nest box.  After awhile, DC returned, flying past Beauty in front of the Times Square Bldg (TSB), heading north, very low.  We did not see him come out the other side of the Reuters Thompson Bldg.  So I headed down to Aqueduct St and Brian headed back up to the top of the South Ave garage.

Down on Aqueduct St, I found Dot.ca on the green stripe at the top of the Wilder bldg, south side.  He was preening and looking in all directions.  That’s when I saw two falcons fly over me heading towards the SE.  I heard no vocalizations and first reported it as Beauty and Orion flying together .  I received a call from Brian.  It was Beauty chasing out another female Peregrine heading SE and when they flew over him, they were both screaming.  Oh, boy!  We spoke about it afterwards and had to wonder if it was Pigott coming in for a visit.  I kept watch on Dot.ca, who kept looking in the direction the two females headed, but he never budged from the Wilder bldg. I put a text out to see if anyone was close to the BS location and Kathy O answered saying she would stop there.  She reported that she could not find Pigott and that it was very quiet there.

Brian texted me from the garage and let me know that he saw a falcon on the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  It was time to motivate!  I parked my car in the City Hall parking lot near FCT and found Orion on the middle arm, safe, sound and very quiet.  At least for a moment.  He then started crying and whining.  Dinner time!  I let Brian and everyone else know that it was Orion and all was ok.

That’s when Orion decided it would be a good time to STOOP!  Yep!  He stooped right off the FCT and flew behind some buildings on the SW side of the FCT.  I ran down the street, in front of City Hall, I had to wonder what security thought!  Hahaha!  I just reached the trees near the corner of Church St when I saw a streak of lightening fly towards me and THUMPED on a couple of Crows, forcing them down into the tree just above my head.  They were not happy, but Orion was.  He thought he would celebrate by eating a little bit of leftovers he had up on the FCT.  He landed on a small platform that had some twigs laid on it at one end.  We had seen this and wondered who it belonged to.  My guess was the Crows attempted to nest here and the Peregrines said no way. Brian reported from the garage that he had B&DC in his sights.  Beauty had returned.

Orion finished his meal and laid down on the platform where I could not see him.  Every now and then a wing would fling upwards to let me know he was still there.  I was soon joined by Kathy O and Larry O (and no, they are not related.  lol)  As we stood around chatting, Orion decided it was a good time to go.  He stretched his wings and took off, heading SE towards the OCSR, circling higher and higher.  I quickly texted that info to Brian, who was now with Dan S on the BSB.

Lou and Dana joined us for a short while before heading out to check the downtown area.  There was an American Idol show at the Blue Cross Arena aka War Memorial and the BSB was filled with cars.  Kathy O reported that the people going to the show were very well dressed.  Then Lynda texted me to ask where everyone was.  I called and told her that most were heading back downtown.  She was able to find a parking spot down on Aqueduct St.  It was 7:30 pm and I wanted to get home early to start writing my report, but just as Kathy and I were heading towards are cars, Carrie and Shaky showed up.  So, we chatted for awhile and I explained to them everything that happened.  Shaky is going to check tomorrow to see if he can get pancam (Cam #1) to reach the platform containing the abandoned nest on the FCT.  This definitely seems to be a favorite spot for Orion.

Larry O made one last report that there were 7 Watchers on the BSB and Zero Falcons.

At 8:30 pm, it was time to call an end to my Watch.  Just as we were getting ready to leave, we spotted five very large birds in a V formation way up high .  At first we thought Great Blue Herons, but it just didn’t seem right.  Were they some sort of family unit of Cranes?  Please take a look and let me know what you think.  Just another reason why we all keep our eyes to the sky!  There are so many cool things up there.

Here is the link to my Shutterfly Album with some pictures from today.  No sign on needed.  Enjoy!

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsmzZk4ctX2w

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Last night on the bridge after the attempted food transfers I said to Carol that I hoped Dan would see one in the morning. Well, not only did Dan see the first witnessed food exchange for Orion but so did I!!!  It was spectacular and Orion stayed upside down for quite a long time as he made sure he got that food from Beauty. Here’s the set up-I arrive on the Broad St. bridge(BSB) about 6:40am and see Dan and LarryO in their chairs and Orion is on the base of Mercury.

He stoops off the other side going behind the Thomson Reuters building where we lost him. Next thing we know Orion has some how snuck back to Mercury and before we catch our breath from that sequence I spot beauty flying in over the river with a small package. Orion starts singing very loud and off he goes toward his mom. Over the river between the Rochester Convention Center and Thomson Reuters he meets her flips upside down and stayed that way until he got a good grip of it and off he flew out of view.  This transfer was made in the same general area as in 2010 when Beauty exchanged prey to Callidora for everyone to see by Aqueduct Park during the watchers weekend brunch.

Beauty flew to the southwest corner of the Wilder building where Larry found her and then Orion flew in and chased Beauty over to the nest box by the main cam.

They didn’t stay but for a few seconds with his mouth open the whole time. They both flew off together with Beauty landing on Mercury and Orion right behind her to knock her off the base. Both Orion and Beauty flew together,then he would chase her and mini stoop on her from one side of the river to the other all the while singing away. They were so much fun to watch that I just stood there taking it all in and unfortunately got no pics.Sorry guys!

Orion returned and flew to the Hyatt hotel landing on the northwest corner lower roof.

click the pics for full version

Larry and Dan left so I went down to observe from the parking lot by the hole where DebbieH stopped on her way to work. Orion flew off the Hyatt crossed the river past OCSR and over Crossroads heading west toward the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT). I left and walked over to my bench on the corner of Church and Fitzhugh streets. I had spotted Dot.Ca on the FCT platform railing south side from State St on my way over. I next located Orion down low on the tower eating where he and mom had their food fight yesterday. Then I saw Beauty directly above him looking down watching over her little darling.

Beauty was plucking feathers from a pigeon wing and Orion was keeping an eye on her from the stick nest at the northeast corner of the lower catwalk.

Orion moved to a north side ibeam and then stooped off of  it while mom and dad went on with what they were doing. DC remained on platform railing preening when Orion returned only to fly off with Beauty. He returned with the wing Beauty had been prepping and started eating. I’m thinking another food transfer took place. Orion finished off this small meal filling his crop and then fly-hopped over to the stick nest for another nap.

Everyone was settled for a while so I made my way to the Sister Cities garage and up to the top ramp for a birds eye view of the FCT and the city. I could see Orion flattened out on the stick nest so then I took a few pics to show the folks online what I could see from there. When I got back to watching our sleepy boy he was up and DC was there as well on the north ibeam peeking at him. Orion had some choice words for dad as they were moving around and then Orion flew off.

When I came down from the garage DC was gone and only the Beautyful one remained under the platform sound asleep.

I ended my watch at this point knowing that our young fledgling was learning his lessons well which naturally put a big ole smile on this watchers face! 🙂

Pics and videos can be viewed at the links below

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrFoA

http://youtu.be/oBvrSgyB3oY

http://youtu.be/Qg5IgK8Ierk

http://youtu.be/8sS-5gqisVM

http://youtu.be/bicZt9MkeJU

http://youtu.be/3BLkJHFH00k

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

My Watch was delayed by thunderstorms passing through the area.  Because of the storms, I did not arrive downtown until 6:00 pm.  I first checked the Frontier Communication Tower (FCT) (nothing), Kodak Office (nothing), north side of Old Changing Scenes Restaurant (OCSR) (nothing).  A whole lot of nothing.  Next stop, the Broad St Bridge (BSB).  Finally, a falcon up on the base of the SE wing of the TSB.  It was Beauty.  So, where was Orion?  The search continued.  Joyce, MAK and Brian drove by and waved.  I told them I was going over to the Andrew St Bridge to get a better view of the FCT.  Still no luck.  I drove over to the FCT.  There I met up with Jeanne and Lynda.  Larry was somewhere nearby, but I never saw him.  Since there were no falcons here, we all ended up back at the Broad St. Bridge.

Kathy O texted that she was over at the Brighton location and there were two falcons there.  She assumed that it was Pigott and Dot.ca.  They were both quiet and on opposite sides of the building.

Jeanne spotted Orion up on top of the elevator shaft at the east end of the OCSR.  Now gathered on the BSB were Kathy O, Joyce, Lynda, MAK, Jeanne, Lisa McK and me, Carol P.  It was a beautiful evening, now that the rain had stopped.  A falcon flew in from the north carrying food, coming towards us.  We looked up to see that Beauty was gone from the TSB, so this had to be her.  Orion came off of the elevator shaft, screaming. We all watched excited that maybe, we might see a food transfer.  Beauty carried the food clutched in her talons, heading towards Mercury.  Above the river, Orion flew up to meet her, but he just could not figure out what exactly he needed to do.  When doing a food transfer, he would need to flip upside down to grab the food offered by Beauty.  He tried twice to take the food from his mom, but he couldn’t figure it out.  Yet.  I have no doubt that a Watcher will soon be reporting seeing a successful food transfer.  He was very close tonight.

Both landed on the base of the Mercury statue.  The food offered to Orion appeared to be a wing and a small part of a bird, possibly from a pigeon.  At first Beauty attempted to feed him, but he would have none of that.  He fought with her until she finally left him to feed himself.  Beauty flew off towards the east.  The last we saw of her this evening was seeing her fly behind the B&L building.

We all settled in to watch Orion “wrestle” with his dinner.  That’s the best way to explain it.  He would jump on it and pull on it and drag it around  the base of the statue. Wings out and jump on it!  Pull off a piece, eat it and drag it to the other side.  Talk about playing with your food!  He is a very entertaining young tiercel to watch.  lol  Finally, after having his fill, he settled down.

We went back to keeping one eye on him and one on the birds/critters on the river below.  The Black Crowned Night Heron juvie flew down the river from the north and ended up on the rocks of the river below us on the south side of the BSB.  We all walked across the street to watch this young one, run and jump from rock to rock.  Obviously he was attempting to hunt, but we didn’t see him catch anything.  He was just as playful as Orion.  Ah, to be young again.  🙂

The BCNH flew over to the east bank of the river to the base of the tree that Jeanne, Larry and I had seen him in last night.  He flew directly over a Great Blue Heron.  The GBH did not like sharing HIS river with this young whippersnapper.  So the GBH kind of stalked the young BCNH.  Every time the GBH got close, the BCNH would leap into the air and fly to another spot.  This continued for awhile before it got too dark.

By the time we looked back up at Orion, he was gone.  None of us had seen him leave.  A little later, Joyce reported that Orion had returned to the calf of the Mercury statue.  At 8:30 pm, I decided to head home.

It was nice seeing all my Watcher friends and I was very happy to see Orion and Beauty attempt a food transfer.  Just another lesson for young Orion to learn.

Tomorrow is another day and I plan on being downtown for my late afternoon/evening Watch.  Hope you all can join me!  Remember to keep your eyes to the sky!  There is so much going on up there!

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

It was a dark overcast morning as I made my way to the bus stop. When I arrived downtown Dan wasn’t there on the bridge but Larry was and he had one falcon on the jail tower 3rd arm south side. Soon after a falcon flew up from under the Court St. bridge and went to the Civic Center roof to eat whatever it caught by the river. The pefa on the jail tower flew off and returned landing on the top arm west side. They both left heading north so I decided to walk over to the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT) after Larry left. Bingo-when I got there I found Orion on the south side railing and one flew off to the east.

DC showed up landing on the north platform railing directly above Beauty who was on one of the cubes. Orion was somewhere inside the structure hiding on me and then he went down low on the tower east side ibeam.

DC left and that would be the last I saw of him on my watch.  Beauty and Orion hung out together on the FCT for the rest of my watch. At one point Orion was eating when Beauty moved in to try and take it from him. Nothing doing at the start as she would fly off the tower 3 times and return to try again. Finally she snagged it and started eating while he sang very loudly. Eventually he went over to her and let his mom feed him a few morsels beak to beak before grabbing the rest and scaring Beauty off once more.

After all traces of breakfast were devoured they settled in for some preening and napping for the remainder of my watch.

Click on pic for full version

It seemed like they were settled in for a while so I ended my watch and left for the next bus home smiling as I thought about the food fight that took place! 🙂

I took many videos and a photo album for which you can click on the links below to view

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrFgg

http://youtu.be/HWoTP83JFZw

http://youtu.be/GLHgaoHH_Ck

http://youtu.be/7b9omUBldlI

http://youtu.be/MtrenedcBcs

http://youtu.be/Nde0Gt_kCBg

http://youtu.be/zRryvdoYOxs

http://youtu.be/hxgYY7InrkA

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

After work, I arrived downtown at 4:00 pm.  I was greeted by a large mass of dark clouds coming in from the West.  When it finally came through, we just got a few sprinkles in the downtown area.

I checked all over downtown, finally finding Beauty deep within the frame work of the FCT, under the platform.  When I drove over to the City Hall parking lot for a closer look, I saw that her eyes were closed and she was sound asleep.  Sleeping Beauty.  🙂

It was very quiet, so I wasn’t sure if Orion was up there somewhere also.  I now suspect he may have been.  After watching Beauty sleep for close to an hour, and almost dozing off myself, I decided to drive around the city to see if I could find any other falcons.  No  luck, so I ended up on the Broad St Bridge.  I turned my car to face east and then west, just to keep both directions in view at different times.  Because it was sprinkling, I stayed in my car.  At 6:30 pm, I received a text from Kathy O.  She was over at the FCT and she could hear Orion’s screaming, but she couldn’t find him.  I headed over there to join her.

Before I arrived, Kathy found both Beauty and Orion within the framework of FCT.  Beauty was de-feathering a wing of a bird and Orion wanted his share.  It was very small and I do believe that Beauty ate it.  Larry O and Jeanne joined us at this point.  It started to rain again and we moved under a tree near the city hall bldg.  Just as we did, Beauty took off heading SE (6:50 pm).  Orion remained on the FCT and moved about, preening, stretching and a poop before he too took off heading in the same direction his mom did.  We all followed, meeting on the Broad St Bridge.  Larry had spotted Beauty on the top IBeam of OCSR (south side) and I found Orion on top of the elevator shaft.  He was looking down at Beauty and then he flew down and knocked her off!  Tag!  You’re it Momma!  lol

Beauty flew over to the base of the Mercury statue and Orion remained on the top Ibeam.  We were all amused by his antics.  He would stop, then run, then stop and run some more.  He repeatedly did this until he made his way down the whole length of the Ibeam and came up against the wall before the elevator shaft.  This is where he settled down, flattening like a pancake.  Would he stay there for the evening?

While we were watching Orion and Beauty, we spotted a fairly large, dark bird fly down the river towards us.  It landed in a tree near the library.  Larry and I went to investigate and found a juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron.  I was very happy to see this bird.  It was a first of the season for me.  We usually had a parent and young down on the river each year.  They were fun to watch as they hunt in the shallows of the river.

At 8:00 pm, we all decided to call it a night.  We were starting to lose light and both Beauty and Orion seemed settled.  I did check KP on the way home and had no luck finding KPT.  Jeanne checked the BS location on her way home and did not see Pigott.

It was another lovely evening for watching our favorite falcons.  Remember to always keep your eyes to the sky!

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

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AcsmzZk4ctXyg

By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

I joined Dan on the Broad St. Bridge about 6:40am. He told me he hadn’t seen any falcons and that Larry had gone to the pedestrian bridge at high falls cuz  there was a falcon on Kodak Office(KO). Larry tweeted that there was 2 on the KO tower and then there were none. Meanwhile, Dan and I were searching the skies for falcons when Ei tweeted that Orion was at the nest box. I was delighted to hear that the peeps at home would get to have a look at our little juvie. He stayed for over half an hour before taking off toward the Frontier Communications Tower(FCT).

I waited a few minutes for a return of Orion and then started to trek over to FCT. I ran into my friend Nelson who couldn’t believe that I would walk to Kodak just to look for falcons. He told me to tell Donna he said HI then we fist bumped and he went on his way shaking his head at how much the falcons mean to all of us. Passion for something you love is a good thing!

So I got to my bench at the corner of Fitzhugh and Church streets to observe the FCT for falcons.  I barely sat down when Orion came out from the inner part of the structure and flew after a butterfly of all things! I guess it’s his version of clearing the air space lol and then he flew back to the tower and landed on the platform railing southeast corner. He did his famous fly-jumping along the rail making his way over to near the southwest corner.

Orion vanished while I was tweeting so I had no idea what direction to go. I opted for checking KO first before going back to the BSB and I had no success locating any falcons at KO. Off to the bridge where I found Beauty on the OCSR building top ibeam south corner. For a little while there were 4 guys on the roof and Beauty never flinched so I don’t think she was aware that they were up there. I would share space with her up there for nearly 3 hrs. During that time DC showed up on Mercurys head.

And a woman came by and asked if I was making a documentary! I said no I’m on fledge watch and of course gave her the details of what that is. After she left I thought yeah I pretty much am by documenting all that I observe into my watch reports. Orion suddenly appeared landing under the southeast wing as he sang a song on his way. lol He didn’t stay long and he was off to the jail tower 2nd arm on the south side. Soon after that DC flew over to OCSR coming to rest on the 2nd ibeam near the south corner directly below Beauty.

I broke for lunch and when I returned Orion was gone and so was Beauty. DC remained on OCSR as I searched for Orion to no avail. I saw a falcon fly through low and go to the back lower roof of the Times Square building and land on a wall ledge. It had its back to me so I was having a hard time IDing who it was tho I knew it was an adult. After reviewing my pics on the computer I can safely say that it was the Beautyful one.

I took pics of a huge spider in its tattered web on the side of a car in the parking lot by Wilder. It had some very long legs and shown up very well in the sun on the black car. Beauty left the TSB while I was photographing the spider and so I started searching for falcons. Having no luck I decided they were taking their afternoon nap somewhere hunkered down where I wasn’t going to find them for a few hours. So I hopped on the next bus home thus ending my watch. Orion is so entertaining to watch and a good source for making me smile!

I made many short videos today and a photo album-click the links below to view them

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWrFbA

http://youtu.be/k_kVLD3n4Fw

http://youtu.be/RD-IWUwXCUI

http://youtu.be/9c3IomY-89Y

http://youtu.be/AzEi2ZKVthk

http://youtu.be/55UGR6gfiSg

http://youtu.be/qyZtZujx2Y0

http://youtu.be/WlnfWQ6qkWs

By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

I arrived downtown very close to 7:00 am.  Many Watchers were already gathered on the Broad St Bridge.  Dan, Lynda, Larry O, Dana, MAK and I settled in our chairs on the bridge for what would be a spectacular couple hours of amazing flying over the Rochester Skyline by Orion, Beauty and Dot.ca.  Sometimes it was hard to know who was who.  Obviously Beauty is the largest and her split wing tip (due to her molt) is a dead give away.  All three were diving and stooping and chasing and talon tagging and just when one of the adults would land, Orion was on them, knocking them off of a building for more fun!  It was so much fun to see this young fledgling doing all this flying and getting the attention of both his parents.  The Watchers were enjoying every moment of Orion’s lessons. If Orion had a sibling, they would both be learning together, but in this case, both Beauty and Dot.ca were giving Orion their full attention.

After a couple hours of intense flying, everyone left except for Lynda, MAK, Dana, Kathy O and I.  We decided to move our chairs down closer to the library to get the sun out of our eyes.  Larry and Dan had to leave and Kathy O joined us.  During that lull, we were approached by a reporter from the D&C, David Andreatta.  He interviewed us and asked many questions.  Between all 5 of us, he got quite an ear full.  lol  We were all interested to know how the article would turn out and what would be included.   It was wonderful meeting you David!  Come join us anytime!  🙂

During the mid-afternoon, the falcons were still flying around a bit, but not as much as they had this morning.  I decided to get some things done, so I left Kathy and Jeanne on Watch.

I returned at 7:00 pm for a quick look around the city to see where Orion was.  I was joined by Dana and Lou.  We found Orion on the platform of the FCT and Beauty on a small ledge on the SE corner of the TSB, below the nest box level.  This was one of Archer’s favorite spots.  As we were losing light, Orion flew back towards the TSB, and we found him at the base of the SE wing, hopefully tucked in for the night at about 8 pm.  Beauty remained on the lower ledge.  So, with it getting dark and both Orion and Beauty settled in on the TSB, we all decided to call it a night at about 8:30 pm.  Tomorrow was another day to keep our eyes to the sky to view more lessons for our young juvie. <3