Seneca Serves Up Sunday Fun

Young Seneca, last of the 2008 brood to fledge, is showing herself to be an enthusiastic, prolific flier. This morning she was all over the gorge, offering terrific opportunities for watchers-- regulars, as well as local and out-of-town visitors-- to admire her aerial skills.

As is so often the case, the star didn't make the first appearance. Indeed, the first bird of note that I saw wasn't even a falcon, but rather this Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) on the hunt beneath the Pont de Rennes bridge:


I arrived at about 7:30 this morning and found myself alone. I thought it a bit unusual given the propensity for flying that we're used to on early July mornings. The juveniles have been covering a lot of ground this year so I imagined other watchers were probably out looking for them. Scanning the bridge and the gorge area for falcons turned out to be fruitless, but when I turned by binoculars westward I spied two Peregrines; one on the guy wire supporting a light post at Frontier Field (where Zephyr sat a couple of days ago) and another on top of an air conditioning unit on Kodak's building 9 south of the tower. I found two more on the Frontier Communication tower. Then I saw the falcon on the Frontier Field guy wire launch itself into the air where it met two of its siblings and darted out of southward out of sight.

At the west end of the bridge I met up with Kris and Bill who were visiting from the town of Byron. We walked back toward the east end of the gorge just in time to catch the first good flying of the day:
          

Susan B coursed through the gorge for the next couple of minutes, buzzing the vegetation and eventually landing in a tree on the gorge wall that the regular watchers have dubbed the "Falcon Sucking Tree", because of its attractiveness to the juveniles, who like to perch amongst its shaded boughs.

It was nearly 30 minutes later when she decided to do more flying. We'd been joined by a local family who were armed with a formidable array of Canon cameras and long lenses (kindred spirits to be sure!) and "regular" watcher Kelly W. Susan B left her shade and dove low, driving a gull into the river before heading west and disappearing beneath the bridge:
     

     

Another half hour passed before she emerged, landing on a chain link fence on an old building adjacent to the High Falls. We walked out to the observation deck for a closer look:
          

A few minutes before 9:00 the star of the show arrived. Seneca treated us to a nice flight near the falls. She had a bit of something clutched in her bill, but I couldn't identify it. Her flight took her right to where Susan B sat. It looked like she was trying to tempt little Suzie into flight, but she was unsuccessful:
     

     

No matter. Seneca put on a one-falcon show, ranging up and down the gorge between the falls and the bridge. Especially spectacular were her passes through the rainbows cast by the spray of the cataract, and her fly-bys near the observation deck:
     

     

Her flight ended with a landing on the rocks below the deck. We moved around for a better look:


She didn't stay long before flying back over to Susan B for another try:
     

Still Susan B demurred, so Seneca did some more solo flying:
     

     

That finally did the trick, and Susan B joined Seneca for some tandem flying:


They both landed on one of the bridge's piers and for a time all was quiet. Eventually Susan B got airborne again, flying over the river and coming to rest on the same spit of rock below the observation deck that Seneca had occupied:
     

          

After sitting for a portrait session with the assembled watchers she took off, pursing a pigeon:


Meanwhile, Seneca took a flight of her own, and I was surprised to see that she'd been joined by the Z-man! They both alighted in the falcon sucking tree, but paused only an instant before heading toward the falls:
          

They both landed near the falls, Zephyr on the chain link fence, and Seneca nearby. She walked around a corner of the old building next to the falls for a little sisterly communion with Susan B, who'd landed there as well:


A few minutes later Seneca landed near the observation deck:


She hardly tarried before making another aerial circuit and landing even closer, on a rusted old pipe that juts out from the gorge wall immediately below the observation deck! She was very patient, spending a good three minutes there while Dana, Lou and I grabbed pictures at our leisure:
          

Then she flew off toward the falls once more:



Watchers Carol and Joyce showed up as well. They'd all been out before my arrival, and they let me know that all five fledglings had been spotted in the vicinity of the Frontier Field baseball field that morning. After getting caught up on the morning's events we watched Zephyr do some more flying. He landed on another observation deck at the west side of the falls:
          

Then it was Seneca's turn again. She treated us to two solid minutes of flying:
          

After she settled down we turned our attention to the deer family that was wandering in the gorge. We all had a good laugh as mom led her fawns in a potty training session:


One of the fawns showed his frisky side too, cavorting in the shallow water under his mother's watchful gaze:
          

Then it was time for me to leave. I headed back to my car, catching the Kingfisher still hunting from his cable beneath the bridge:


Another great morning, happily passed watching these amazing falcons. The weather forecast is favorable for the next few days, and even though I have to go back to work, I anticipate more mornings of fledgling flying and photographs to come.