Flights, Fights & Frights

While reading the report, one thing that I want to stress is how easy it is for a juvie to be visible and then not visible. They flatten out, walk in, fly away, etc. Unless you are watching them at the precise moment, it is easy to lose track of who is where. Also, using binoculars can be a disadvantage because your field of vision narrows, but without binocs, some details of the activity are missed. It’s a 50/50 chance, whichever way you go.

5:00 am (From Dan and Jeanne): Grace went down the north [smoke]stack, but pretty quickly came out the bottom and flew off towards the north. Sacajawea was on the 16th floor of Kodak, but had since disappeared.

6:40 I arrive. Mariah is on the launchpad. Kaver is on the center stack.

6:50 Walking around the Kodak periphery, I spot a juvenile on the northmost building, west of Jay street by the Animal Shelter. The juvie is on the roof.

7:15 While watching the juvie, I hear over the radio that Sacajawea went from the center stack to Bldg 9 [a building in the Kodak office complex located directly south of the tower] and one juvenile went to the 20th floor of the Kodak tower. (Carol and Jeanne). Shortly thereafter I hear over the radio that there are two juvies by the stacks.

7:20 I am able to identify Grace by her [blue leg] band. Still at the northmost bldg [Building 10 in the Kodak office complex, directly north of the tower] by the [City of Rochester] Animal Shelter. That means three juvies sighted.

7:30 At the Kodak parking lot. Watchers: June, Lisa, Paul, Dan, Carol P, Jeanne. On the main camera is Mariah with Kaver on the center stack. Sacajawea is on Bldg 9.

7:40 Grace goes from the 20th floor to the launch pad. Great flight, good landing.

8:00 Ananta goes from the High Falls stack platform to the center stack. Three juvies located.

8:20 Sacajawea goes from Bldg 9 to Bldg 10. Not a bad flight with a rough landing for the first attempt.

8:30 Ananta goes from the center stack catwalk to Bldg 10 & joins Sacajawea. The two participate in some joint ballet dancing maneuvers on the sloping roof.

8:50 See 1 juvie on the 16th floor south side. At this time Grace and the Bldg 10 juvie are not visible.

9:15 Kaver stoops over the gorge, but misses.

9:30 Start another walk around the Kodak bldg. One juvie goes from Bldg 10 to the center stack, then to the north stack, back to the center stack and lands.

10:05 Back in the parking lot. Mariah comes in with food and proceeds to Sacajawea on the 18th floor, south side. Mariah kept hovering in front of Sacajawea to coax her into a flight. At least five times, Mariah would hover in front of her, fly away and come back. S was crying the whole time for the food, but Mariah would not relent. Sacajawea had to earn the meal. Finally Sacajawea took to the air after Mariah. The duo flew over our heads for some time. Mariah dropped the prey, but Sacajawea did not stoop to take it. Mariah quickly dropped to snag the prey again. Sacajawea continued to fly after Mariah, but eventually chose to land on the 2-story bldg east of the Kodak offices where she rested. Ananta joined in from the center stack but this was a short-lived chase. During all of this Grace stayed up on the launch pad. She had been there all along, but was simply not visible. Grace flew to the stacks
and back with a nice landing on the 17th floor.

Mariah went to Bldg 10 where Ananta and Sacajawea were by this time. Mariah gave more lessons to Sacajawea who was only inches away. No work, no food.

Kaver gave out his alarm call and went south but quickly broke off the chase. Mariah eventually relented and gave the food to Sacajawea, who ran to the meal. Truth be told she earned it. She put in quite an effort at becoming a peregrine.

11:10 One juvie to the center stack catwalk.

11:15 Kaver took off after a turkey vulture, and shortly later another Turkey Vulture came thru (very close) which caused Mariah & Kaver to go into combat mode. Mariah broke off quickly, but Kaver put a few dents in the TV because it did not leave the tower fast enough.

11:30 M & K took on a probable red-tail over the river.

11:40 Tired and exhausted, I headed home.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 22nd, 2007 at 6:30 AM and is filed under Fledge Watch Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.