By Rochester Falcon Watcher MAK

Todays nearly 20 degrees warmer than yesterday temperature was 34 (F) 1 (C) with mostly overcast skies

I was beginning to wonder if I was going to see any falcons this morning as it was almost 7:30am, and then as I was crossing the Broad St. Bridge (BSB) due east I looked up and saw Beauty and Dot.Ca (DC) flying above Xerox. I sprang out of the car and started taping it-the distance and darkness caused  focusing issues but I managed to get some good footage.

They would soar higher and higher until they vanished into thin air only to reappear minutes later. Falcons can change their speed with just the flick of a wing making it hard to keep up with them especially if they’re flying in and out of view amongst tall buildings. They kept up their aerial display covering the east side of the city above Midtown,Xerox,Bausch&Lomb and HSBC  for a half hour and then they disappeared for quite some time. I checked out the river and found some ducks on the south side of the BSB before heading out to look for our sky dancing duo.

After an unsuccessful search of downtown I went to the Brighton site where I had the same result. I returned to the city and while stopped on the Andrews St. bridge I spotted a falcon under the northeast wing of the Times Square building (TSB) just about 9am. When I arrived next to He’s Chinese to observe I received a tweet from Pat (works at Thomson Reuters) that she could see a falcon up there as well. Thanks! I was able to ID the bird as Beauty and she was eating with feathers all around!

One second Beauty would be plucking big mouths full of feathers and the next chowing down on her meal. She spent about 45 minutes eating then she picked up her leftovers, cached them at the back of the ledge and flew north.

I drove north expecting to find the Beautyful one but instead came across DC on the Kodak Office cupola. His crop was empty and he was in hunt mode.

I left DC at 10am thus ending a watch that included some mighty fine flying-something that always produces a smile on this face! 🙂

Click on the links below to see a photo album and videos from my watch

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaN3DFm0ZMWqi9i

http://youtu.be/EDqHhNaF7oM
http://youtu.be/uSjyiJmPUrw
http://youtu.be/lyVJGD-wOAE
http://youtu.be/Gj0womLC6Ks

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 21st, 2013 at 4:47 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.