Friday 16-Jul-2010

Morning – started with all 3 on Midtown.  Beauty flew right over Pedestrian Bridge over watchers heads.  She is molting, missing a feather on each wing…easy to ID in flight. At 7:03 AM Callidora was on base of Mercury eating, feathers flying. Beauty landed minutes later. No Archer.  Beauty under NE wing Times Square (TS). Callidora still on Mercury, food dangling from her beak. She just took off and went behind Xerox building.

Afternoon – All 3 flying over Broad St. Archer went towards jail. Beauty landed on Mercury’s foot. Callidora on the base. Beauty took off with Callidora close behind. Flying lessons began all over downtown. Callidora remained downtown. Beauty hunted over river and landed on 2nd I-beam northside of Old Changing Scenes Restaurant (OCSR), also known as First Federal Building. One falcon on Frontier Communication Tower (FCT).  At 2:48pm MAK, Brian and Ei on South Ave. garage: Callidora and Archer on Frontier Communication Tower.

Evening – 5:10pm Beauty & Callidora dining on FCT. Archer on OCSR.

Colleen T reports:

From the 15th floor of the Radisson I see one falcon (Archer?) directly across from me on the Old Changing Scenes building, preening and another on the communication tower.  I may not leave my room!  (Don’t know where to go anyway…)  Seems like I have a good spot here (and in a/c!)

Watchers gathered on South Ave garage. Archer gave a great aerial display over watcher’s heads. Then all three were spotted flying above gorge.  More watchers arrived to see Archer and Callidora flying around Xerox.  9:00 PM Beauty flew in with a huge bird in her talons.  It was so huge she was struggling!  Watchers didn’t think she would make it to the top of Xerox but she did!  Beauty & Callidora at top of Xerox.

Thursday 15-Jul-2010 – Out-of-towner arrives…

Dumpsterkitty reports:

I finally found the REALLY slow public computer here at the Raddison-tiny room back by the garage-creepy!  Anyway-

Met up with MAK at City Hall.  She graciously drove me all around town until we FINALLY found Beauty and Callidora on the Jail Communication Tower.  Callidora is GINORMOUS!  They took off to the east & we followed.

Found Callidora (and Beauty hiding) on HSBC.  Jeanne, Shaky & Carrie joined us. C did some beautiful flying-you could just tell she was flying just because it was fun!  She and Beauty played some talon tag then flew way out east then back.  Around Xerox…scared up some crows. 

Eventually Archer came in and we saw all 3 flying together! Archer took off west…Beauty took a trip out east then suddenly showed up on Midtown…then Callidora took off way to the west.  At that point it was getting too dark to see. 

It was great to meet MAK & see Jeanne, Shaky & Carrie again!  Can’t wait to see the rest of the gang & meet some new friends!

Part of the photos at the below link show callidora on the widows walk around 7:30 AM, July 12, balancing and trying to eat her morning meal. The remaining photos are from previous watches.

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You can view the (15) photos at the below Kodak web site.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/sharing/shareRedirectSwitchBoard.jsp?token=692255677114%3A1437575693&sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharer

Rochester Falcon Watcher:  Carol P.

With Jemison out of commission, hopefully temporarily, it was a joy to see his big sister Callidora doing so well.  At 4 pm, I joined Brian H on top of the Sister Cities Ramp garage.  It was blistering hot, but we found some shade and settled in to watch Callidora and Beauty on the Frontier communication tower.  For the first couple hours, there wasn’t much activity.

Brian explained that Beauty had earlier flown in with a pigeon.  Callidora was right on her tail, literally!  She tried to grab the pigeon with her beak, but Beauty would not allow it.  Beauty landed on a platform on the shorter of the two comm towers and Callidora landed next to her, finally wrestling the pigeon away from her mother.  With no time to prepare the meal, Beauty stood by as her daughter seemed to question why she wasn’t being fed.  😉

Brian said Beauty was softly kaking while Callidora slowly figured out what she had to do.  Feathers were plucked and dinner was finally self served.  Callidora is a quick learner, especially when it comes to food!

Twice during the afternoon, Callidora went to the pigeon, finishing most of it by the time I arrived.  Fed, with a full crop, both Beauty and Callidora settled inside the frame work of the taller communication tower, finding shade.  Archer visited for awhile and then took off flying over the gorge, then heading south, back towards the city where we lost sight of him.

MAK joined us and we continued to watch.  The first hour is no longer free in the city ramp garages.  It costs $1 for the first two hours.  When my two hours were up, we headed down to street level and parked in front of the City Hall.  There are nice benches located there.  Dana and Lou joined us on the Watch.

During the last hour and 1/2 of my Watch, Callidora took off a couple times, soaring around the area and always returning to the communication tower.  When I left at 7:30 pm, Callidora had settled on the top arm of the comm tower and Beauty was still within the framework below her.  She is flying really well and her landings are getting better and better.

I left the others to continue the Watch.

Rochester Falcon Watcher: Carol P.

While a big portion of the country is currently in a heat wave, many Rochester Falcon Watchers have been braving the scorching temperatures.  We all take keeping an eye on “our” fledglings very seriously.

Today’s Watchers included, Dan S, MAK, Brian H, Joyce, Marcia, Carrie, Shaky, Kathy O and Larry O (not related!  lol).

Brian remained downtown during the daytime, taking cool down breaks at the library and drinking lots of water.  He saw Callidora do some really nice flying during the afternoon.  Most of the day, Callidora was located on the Frontier Communication Tower, keeping to the shade.  Archer and Beauty were with her on and off during the day, but most of the time she was by herself.  Although I’m sure A&B were keeping an eye on her.

A little before 8 pm, Archer flew up to the communication tower and Callidora started crying.  As far as we knew, she had not been fed today.  Archer circled nearby, eventually heading south.  Soon after, Callidora took off, heading in the same direction.  Carrie and Shaky found them both on the Monroe Cty Jail’s communication tower.

The Watchers split up.  Marcia, MAK and I were located on the middle of the Broad St. Bridge, facing the Time Square Bldg. (TSB).  We could see both A&C on the comm twr.  The radio came to life, “Archer just took off heading north!”

I couldn’t see where he went, but I certain saw him returning towards us.  He was successful on his hunt.  Archer flew over us, clutching prey.  He ended up on the TSB on the base of the SE wing.  Feathers flew!  We reported to the others that Archer had food.

The others watching Callidora, called to say that she had taken off and was heading our way.  We watched as she flew towards the TSB, circling and screaming.  She eventually landed next to Archer.  In Marcia’s pictures, it shows that Archer attempted to feed her, but she would have none of that.  She grabbed her dinner and Archer was off, returning to the jail’s communication tower.

When I left at 8:30 pm, Callidora had finished her meal and had returned to join her father on the jail’s communication tower.  It was a nice ending to a very long, hot day.  🙂

Keep cool everyone!

Brian H continued watch this afternoon on top of South Avenue garage after Carol P left to take time to cool down.  Oppressively HOT!  He is taking periodic breaks to cool down.  He cannot Twitter. Brian reported via text messages:

12:24 pm – At library cooling off.  Left Callidora on communication tower tucked in, settled down.
1:15 pm – Callidora still tucked in the framework of Comm. Tower.  Beauty flew around and left.
1:36 pm – Callidora flew for 5 min. over downtown. Great flight, she came right over me twice.  Soared and talon tagged by herself.  Landed back on Comm. Tower.  Good landing, yelling while flying.
1:38 pm – 1 adult landed on top arm of Comm. Tower.
1:52 pm – Callidora is tucked back in gridwork, south middle of red part under platform. Adult still on upper arm.
2:01 pm – All 3 on Comm. Tower.  Alarm kakking – yelling at guys working on Frontier roof.
2:32 pm – Going for water.  It’s hot out here. Archer and Callidora on Comm. Tower.
2:37 pm – Going to library for air conditioning and water.
3:42 pm – I’m back on garage. Callidora is where I left her. Tired after all that flying.  No Archer or Beauty in sight.

Edit 4:40pm – Callidora took short flight twice around Comm. Tower with great landing.

Watcher: Jim P

We had a little trouble locating the falcons this morning, but a little searching revealed them on some familiar territory. Check out the latest story and pictures.
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/07/callidoras-breakfast.html

Larry O

To put it succintly, Callidora’s lessons began in earnest today.

When Cleo & I arrived downtown, Carol P, Dawn (& Maggie), Don and Suzette were at Falcon Watch Central by Thompson – Reuters. Bringing me up to speed, they reported that A & B & C were all on the north side of OCSR in the shade.

The watch stayed quiet until a brief glimpse of Archer overhead. Shortly after that, Beauty appeared overhead – but only briefly. Then shortly after that, Callidora came from OCSR and flew towards TSR. Her flying looked more robust, more steady … more confident. With any new juvie, her landing lacked grace. It seems that the drag introduced by dropping the talons on landing interrupts the air stream upon which they depend. This change in aeronautics obviously disrupts their performance until they gain experience.

Once again all settle down, until …

Archer performed some flight lessons for Calli. She stayed on TSR while Archer soared and stooped and did fly-bys.

Archer and Beauty came back. We think Archer came in first, but pretty quickly someone said “Three falcons in the air”. Every one scanned around and we all confirmed that A & B & C were on the north side of TSR and in flight.

The important thing is that they were flying together.

The first maneuver was an aerial circle by the three. They performed three or four loops of the circle. The flying was tight enough that it could be said that no one was in the lead.

From the circle they broke off so that Callidora was flying solo with Archer and Beauty introducing her to talon tag. It was amazing to see the parents come in to their daughter, approach and just delicately enough show Calli how to stop flight, perform the tag and regain aeronautical control. Beauty and Archer each took turns (at least two apiece) before breaking off the schooling lesson.

Callidora returned to TSR (NW west). A & B disappeared, but later Beauty came in with food which she put down by Calli. Callidora raced to the food and Beauty took off again.

I may have forgotten some of the details but it was a fantastic 10 minutes of activity from the family.

Watcher: Jim P

Before Jemison ran into trouble on Friday, he did some terrific flying. I captured the action and I’ve finally had a chance to write it all up:
http://birdblog.marchlords.com/2010/07/before-trouble-some-terrific-flying.html

From Lou

We arrived last evening around 5:30 pm to find fellow falcon watchers all huddled in the parking lot on the north side of the Times Square building. Jemison was on a window structure on the north side of the TS building, about 25 feet above people walking to their cars in the busy parking lot there. There was an event letting out at the War Memorial in addition to normal traffic, so the streets, sidewalks, and parking lot were quite busy, causing a heightened level of concern in the watchers as they waited for Jemison to take off so that they could confirm whether or not he was okay. About 7:30, he finally did take off and it didn’t go well. He went down. Luckily, he flew west and avoided the traffic on State Street and allowed for a much easier rescue. We took him to a rehab station in Churchville, NY where he was examined by a rehabber and a veterinarian. We left him there for further evaluation, so as Carol shared in her report, there will be more communication once there is more certainty as to what’s happening.

Attached is an album with some pics (click on the below pic of Jemison’s takeoff to view)