We spotted all five fledglings tonight. Four of them– Seneca, Zephyr, Susan B and Diamante, spent most of the evening on the BeeBee Station. Quest stayed on Kodak’s building 16, south of the tower. Zephyr made a nice flight chasing Mariah northward over the gorge, and it looked like most, if not all, had dinner. Seneca and Zephyr in particular ate their fill of a very fat pigeon, with feathers flying everywhere.

The low sun in the west made for some nice silhouettes of the falcons, but it wasn’t good for photography. I’ll be out again tomorrow morning. It was the opinion of the assembled watchers that the fledglings are ready to begin their stint in the gorge, so I’m hopeful that I’ll have some pictures to share tomorrow.

Jim

Another quick update.  Watching from the pedestrian bridge, we saw the fledglings flying high over the city of Rochester.  They’re doing great!

Lou and I decided to take a quick trip downtown for a closer look.  We saw Mariah flying above Xerox.  She headed northeast, but quickly returned.  That caused the 3 fledglings that had been on top of Xerox to take flight.  We had 3 fledglings and Mariah playing on the air currents high above us.

After awhile, the three fledglings settled on the north (shady) side of Midtown Plaza (soon to be gone) to escape the heat.

No sightings of Kaver or the other two fledglings.  I was only able to positively ID one of the fledglings on Midtown, Seneca.

Early this morning (7/3) around 6:30 a.m. the cameras caught both Mariah and Kaver in the nest box, bowing to each other.  🙂

Carol P.

Only Seneca was apparent on the Kodak building when we arrived at 6 PM. Checked out local roof tops, etc, but only found a kestrel. So, we watched the 2 fawns, 3 turkeys, beaver, and kestrel while waiting for the falcons to reappear. At about 7 PM, the fledglings became very vocal and started flying around as dad came with food. He is fast! I saw him fly off the Kodak building and a few seconds later land again, having caught a bird that I didn’t even see. We saw everyone except Quest …  don’t know where she was hiding.

Plenty of flying from all the fledglings today.  I’ve posted pictures and a recap here:
http://marchlords.com/birdblog/2008/07/shunning-gorge-fledglings-keep-flying.html

Jim

No pictures to share at this time, but I just wanted to let everyone know that all five fledglings have returned to the Kodak Tower.  Lots of flying by all five.  I’m sure pictures will be shared soon.  😉

We actually saw Diamante come off of the tower and chase a moth.  Incredible flying!!!

Carol P.

We arrived shortly before 6pm and met up with Kapi at Falcon Watch HQ. Talked to Joyce on the bridge. Not much action for a while. No falcons to be seen. Joni pointed out the nest box to some interested passerbys.

Jon walked to bridge and saw 2 Great Blue Herons, but no Falcons.

At 7:30 Joyce and KC arrived. She reported seeing Kaver by the southwest corner of the Xerox Tower. No other falcons still.

7:45 out to the bridge with Kapi and Joyce. Spotted 2 juvies coming north from downtown playing tag. They came in around Bru building and Zephyres antenas, landing there. A third juvie must have been hiding out there, popped up and they continued to play more tag. Then they flew over by the antenna on Kodak Building 9. It appeared they may have had a stash and may have been eating.

Kapi and Joyce joined us at the corner of State and Platt. By 8:15 3 juvies on ledge of kodak office. SusanB on 17th floor SE corner. Zephyre on 19th floor SE corner. Another Juvie on 19th Floor by dolphins, tucked in close, couldnt see bands. A fourth Juvie flew in at 8:25 landing on kodak building NE of tower(i think building 19) Short time later that juvie flew around Tower and onto 17 floor east ledge just feet from SusanB.

Joni and I called it a night at 8:50.

It was a beautiful morning, so I decided to head downtown in search of
fledglings.

Enjoy!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=171aim5l.6vhh08lp&x=0&y=-cep98w&localeid=en_US

or tinyurl:

http://tinyurl.com/4awhn6

Carol P.

Here are a couple of videos from this weekend.  All the young fledglings are doing well.  They have moved to Downtown Rochester.  We hope that they will return to the Genesee River Gorge.  No sign on needed for either video snippet.

The first one is a game of talon tag by two of the young fledglings.  I believe it is Quest and Zephyr.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=171aim5l.79ii8uel&x=0&y=g3oegl&localeid=en_US

or tiny url:

http://tinyurl.com/579bcg

The 2nd video is what Mariah and Kaver hear when the fledglings are hungry.  They’re ALWAYS hungry!

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=171aim5l.1fm03oel&x=0&y=-w6dghw&localeid=en_US

or tiny url:

http://tinyurl.com/5zc9zu

Enjoy!

Carol P.

The morning started off kind of wet but when I arrived, there were so many watchers – it was awesome!  A little before 8AM, Mariah arrived with some food (a pigeon) that she gave to Quest, Diamante and Zephyr on the SE ledge of floor 13.  Susan B was on the ledge of building 9 (facing the parking lot) and Seneca was on the metal peak of the tower.  Kaver was hanging out on the communications tower behind us but only stayed there for a short while.  Seneca took off on a small flight towards the smoke stack – she went around it and then came back towards the tower trying to land on the metal peak but just couldn’t quite hit the landing…so she continued flying and ended up sticking the landing onto the 19^th floor SW ball.

Quest ended up eating most of the pigeon for a good 20 minutes or so until Mariah decided to steal it off of the ledge.  This got the three juvies into the air for some flying.  Mariah ended up dropping the carcass near the construction site and she flew back to the tower where she landed on the SE ledge of the 17^th floor.  Quest figured she had enough food and stayed on the ledge of 13, Zephyr landed on the corner of the Rochester Plumbing Supply building (which was where the food had landed!) and Diamante went to the ledge of building 9 (facing State St.).  A few of us walked over to find where the carcass had landed and we found it in the road.  Jim P. tried to throw it up onto a rooftop for Zephyr but he took off and landed on the antennae of the old Empire Brewing Company building.

At 10:30, Diamante decided to take a quick flight and after a short walk, we found him – he had landed on a satellite dish next to his brother on the antennae.Zephyr decided to give us all a scare with some low flying – he flew down in front of the watchers and landed for a quick second on the sidewalk and then took off flying low over the street until he got up to the SW corner of building 9 and landed.  Phew!

Around 9:15AM, Seneca flew off of the SW ball and went up to the playpen on the W side where she eventually made her way to the SE floodlight.  We were also treated to a Great Blue Heron flying over us with a fish in its mouth – he flew off towards the gorge.

Things went quiet and we enjoyed a doggie parade around 9:40AM until Mariah quickly took chase of a crow around the High Falls parking garage.  She wasn’t gone long and she rested back up on the NE ledge of 19.  There was a lot of kak-ing when she returned, but no food!

At 11AM, things started picking up as Kaver dropped off some food for Susan B on the corner of building 9.  Diamante and Zephyr quickly came over to steal it away. Susan B was able to get some before Diamante took it and went behind building 9 being chased by Quest.  The two of them ended up on a lower building roof behind building 10.

When I left, all were accounted for!  Another awesome watch!!

After Kelly left, I took over the Watch. She just missed Mariah’s
stoop off of the tower after a pigeon in front of the new housing
units being built across the street. Brian, Susan C and I watched in
amazement as Mariah did a move that just seemed impossible. She is
truly unbelieveable.

I had to leave for a moment and when I returned, I was told by Briah
H and Susan C that I had missed Mariah’s 2nd stoop off of the tower.
This time she snagged a Starling over the courtyard in front of
building. Darn! Brian said he never saw the small bird pass in
front of the tower. Instead he followed Mariah’s path and all he saw
was a “POOF” of feathers when Mariah hit the Starling.

We were joined by the nighttime Watchers, including Carrie, Shaky,
Jeanne, Joyce, Lucy, Dana, Lou and a couple who’s names escape me.
(Sorry!)

There was ALOT of flying during my Watch by all of the Fledglings and
M&K. Seneca ended up back at the playpen, under the nest box. Susan
B flew out to the smoke stack and was joined by Zephyr. They preened
each other. Ahhhhh! 😉

Lots of talon tag games were played, food was brought in. When I
left at 8:00 p.m., all 5 juvies were accounted for. What a beautiful
day it was for a watch.

Carol P.