Rochester Falcon Watcher:  Carol P.

I was downtown, along with many other Watchers, for a good part of today. During that time, there was a lot of flying by Archer and Beauty and a lot of flapping by Callidora & Jemison.

After a dinner break, I returned to find a whole lot of Watchers in attendance, Kathy O, Lisa McK, Joyce, Willie, Dan S, Dana, Lou, MAK & Marcia, Ralph & his wife (sorry I forgot your name).  I’m sure I’m missing someone.  I wasn’t on official Watch, so I wasn’t keeping track of names.

By 7 pm, there were only a handful of Watchers left, Marcia, Joyce, MAK, Lisa and I.  I felt really sorry for those that had just left, because that’s when the fun began.

We watched as Jemison flap, flap, flapped on top of the main camera.  and then……………………..off he went (he was banded as a small female, but I’ve started to think of him as a him, just my opinion)!

Jemison took flight!  Real, long, sustained flight.  Not just the short flight over to the other side of the Times Square bldg.  Jemison first flew out to the east towards the river.  Beauty zipped in from the Mercury statue where she had been for a long time.  It looked like she was physically pushing him back towards the Times Square bldg.  Stopping him from heading for the river.

Jemison flew back to the long section of the Times Square bldg on the south side, landing quite well.  Beauty landed above and kept watch.

Jemison flapped, hopped and skipped his way to the taller, front part of the building, coming up against a wall, which he attempted to climb, jumping up on small ledges until there were no more.  This didn’t stop him.  Off he went yet again, this time heading south, then east.  Again, Beauty was there to guide him back to the Times Square bldg, where he landed on the same section he had first landed on, except this time on the north side.  The remaining Watchers hurried to the other side.

Jemison was not happy where he was and was in constant motion, again heading towards the taller part of the building where the nest box was located.  He tried to climb again with no success.  Finally attempted a short flight up, but missing his target.  This time he fell down the face of the building, threw his wings out and started flapping again, heading east.  Jeanne had joined me at this point and I quickly told her what was happening.

He headed towards the east, again towards the river and Beauty put up a block.  She followed him very closely towards the Wilder building, where he landed at the top, south side.  Whew!  Safe yet again

For the next 15-20 mins, Jemison paced, flapped and hopped back and forth, making his way to the top of the fire escape that his parents were seen many times.

Again, off!  This time towards the Times Square bldg.  He first landed on the level above the nest box, rested a bit and then headed down to the level he had been flying to for two days.  One more short flight and he was safely back at the nest box.  Archer had returned during this last bit of flying.

We were all so excited to see Jemison flying so well.  He was getting altitude easily and flap, gliding and landing well.  I have to admit that he is probably one of the strongest first time fliers I’ve had the honor to watch.  Truly outstanding!

It was starting to rain, so we headed back to our cars.  Carla P joined us and we told her what had happened.  Beauty picked up a cache of food somewhere and flew up to land on a lower level with it.  She seemed to want to stay out of sight.  For some reason, she wasn’t ready to feed them.

We checked our watches and saw that it was 8 pm.  Jemison had been flying around for an hour.  We were ecstatic that he had done so well and had returned to the nest box safely.  Callidora was very happy too!  🙂

I left as it started to rain harder, so I’m not sure when or if Beauty fed them.  Maybe Joyce or MAK will be able to report on this.

It was a long but very enjoyable day of Falcon Watching.  🙂