By Rochester Falcon Watcher Carol P.

Oh, what a cold day it was today.  The temperatures never made it out of the 30’s (F).  Brrrrr!  There was a little bit of light snow and small ice pellets hitting my car while I was checking for Billy out at Russell Station and the Charlotte/Summerville area.  She wasn’t there and she wasn’t at Seneca Towers or Hawkeye either.  But, there were lots of Red-tail Hawks out and about.  One hunting on the south side of Russell Station, two at Hawkeye, one flying over the High Falls area, one on the camera on the SE corner of Acon’s Peak Bldg at Kodak Office and two on light poles near the Ford St Bridge.  Lots of RTH’s out and about!

Downtown, I found Beauty on the south side of the Wilder Bldg, on the green strip, just left of the ladder leading up to the roof.

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I stayed with her for awhile as she closed her eyes and slept on and off.  The streets were filling up with folks coming into town for the circus.  Police were directing traffic in front of the Rochester War Memorial (what I still call it) aka the Blue Cross Arena.  Beauty seemed settled in, so I decided to driver over to the BS location to see if Pigott was home.  She was.  I found her on the SW corner of the SE extension.  She was wide awake and actively keeping an eye on her territory.

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Pigott took off heading east and returned, landing on a window on the east side of the SW extension.

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Pigott started to ee-chupp and wail loudly.  This was her way of greeting Dot.ca when he flew in, so I knew she saw him.  It wasn’t long before I saw him too.  He landed on the NE corner of the SW extension.  They were both vocalizing loudly.  I recently read a report by a Peregrine expert that called this loud keening sound, wailing.  Both Dot.ca and Pigott were greeting each other quite loudly.  Pigott took off and flew past Dot.ca then turned and flew to the east end of the building.

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Pigott took off again, this time heading south and Dot.ca was right behind her.  They were off on a tandem hunt, but both came back empty taloned.  Dot.ca landed on the east end of the south side vent and Pigott landed on the SW corner of the SE extension.

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Dana joined me on the Watch just before Pigott again took off and flew over to the slatted window on the south side/west end.  There was more vocalization as Dot.ca flew to the spot Pigott had vacated on the SE extension.

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They stayed like that for quite awhile before Dot.ca again took, this time heading north towards downtown.  Pigott remained at the slatted window.

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We left Pigott on the slatted window ledge, now quiet after Dot.ca’s departure.

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Dana and I headed back downtown.  We found both Dot.ca (left) and Beauty (right) on the Kodak Tower launchpad.

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The sun was finally out and the sky was blue, but it was still very cold.  While Dot.ca was keeping watch over the area, Beauty preened.

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After awhile, I left Dana to keep watch over B&DC and I headed down to the lake to look for Billy or any other falcons that might be down there.  Again I had no luck finding any at Charlotte/Summerville or Russell Station. It was time for me to end my falcon watch.  But I did have one more stop on my route home.  After Dana spotted the small tiercel on the antenna on Latta Rd, I’ve added that to my stops on the way home.  Today I was lucky.  He was back!  I quickly texted out that the Latta PEFA was there.  After about 15 minutes, he spread his wings and flew quickly to the north.  I remained near the antenna hoping he would return.  Dana joined me just as the tiercel returned.  He was definitely in hunt mode.  About 10 minutes later, he again took off heading northeast.  This time he did not return.

So, it seems he might be sticking around, at least for awhile.  This is the 2nd time he had been spotted hunting from this antenna.  We are pretty sure he is not banded.  You can bet we’ll keep an eye out for this handsome adult tiercel!  Here are a few pictures I took of him before he took off.  Please be sure to click on any pictures you would like to see larger.  Take care and goodnight!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, November 3rd, 2013 at 10:01 PM and is filed under Falcon Watch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.