When I arrived, Paul, Dan S, Jeanne, Carol P and Jim P were already gathered at the corner of Platt and Mill St. It was not ” a dark and stormy night”, since it was a cool morning with bright, blue skies over the “Flour”/”Flower” city, as Rochester is sometimes known. They brought me up to speed which essentially meant a rather slow morning with some talon tag among the girls. Dan had earlier sighted all four juvies, so it was “All Quiet on the Western Front”.

Just like when I was in Naval Intelligence (you can skip the jokes), watching is long periods of boredom, followed by explosive moments of frenetic activity. During one such period this morning (which probably lasted no more than 10 minutes):
– A food transfer brought forth 3 juvies (Sacajawea, Ananta and Linn) over the parking lot.
– Grace headed far out north after a pigeon.
– A juvie stooped on a blackbird.
– A juvie flew into a window on Bldg 10.

My thanks to Jim P for the idents because he was able to use the review feature of his camera to help in id’ing the girls.

Early on, we had all four juvies sighted and Kaver on the lilies. Later Mariah came in with an ort (crossword puzzle answer) which Sacajawea, Ananta and Linn went after over the visitor parking lot, and very near to the stacks. The transfer went well with all three girls making attempts at different times. Sacajawea ended up with the food, and all three retired to the center stack catwalk. One juvie was on the floor, one juvie was on a railing and the third juvie was on the railing, but apparently mantling something. Jim P went off to get pictures.

Meanwhile Grace (by process of elimination) left the tower in chase of a pigeon that crossed over the visitor’s parking lot. It was a good looking stoop, but unsuccessful. Grace put in a good chase, and we watched her head out a fair distance to the north. When she broke off the chase, she circled repeatedly while climbing altitude. She spent maybe 10 minutes before leisurely heading back to the tower. That girl is progressing very nicely. She is my favorite, and Paul (who is obviously a very discerning gentleman) agreed with me.

Somewhere in this period with Jim near the plumbing supply building, two juvies started some talon tag over the parking lot. They were swooping around the area when they headed off towards Bldg 10, but in this game they were down around the 7th floor, give or take. Anyway in the game of tag, they crossed over State St, and one of the two flew into a window on Bldg 10. We were back at Platt and Mill, and only saw the hit, but Jim was much closer and reported hearing the hit also. We all stood up, as the juvie headed down to the street and Jim was running. But after several seconds the juvie shook it off and flew to the stacks with her partner. In fact the two flew to the far side of the stacks where we lost them.

We noticed activity on the far side of the BeeBee station so Jim, Paul and I headed out to the bridge. While out there, Paul spotted ?Ananta? on the catwalk of the center stack. We had not yet located any other juvies. But a blackbird crossed over us, and after a long pause, Ananta took off after it. The stoop was too late, and half-hearted, but she is getting the idea so that was a good sign.

We headed back to Platt and Mill where it soon became time for folks to head back to their work and/or personal lives. We left Jim on the corner to hold down the fort.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 7:50 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.